I 


m 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


GIF^T   OF* 


Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894. 
Accessions  No.  cT/r7/7  3 .      Class  No. 


THE 


HOLY  WORD 

IN   ITS    OWN   DEFENCE: 


ADDRESSED    TO 


BISHOP  COLENSO 


AND 


ALL  OTHER  EARNEST  SEEKERS  AFTER  TRUTH. 


BY 

REV.  ABIEL  SILVER, 

OF    NEW   YORK, 

AUTHOR  OF  "LECTURES  ox  THE  BYMBOLIC  CHARACTER  OF  THE 

SACKED  SCRIPTURES." 


"  Then  opened  Ho  their  understandings  that  they  might  understand  the  Scrip- 
tures."—LUKE  xxiv,  45. 
"  The  entrance  of  Thy  "Word  giveth  light."— PSALM  cxix,  130. 


NEW  YORK : 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

443    &   445    BEOADWAY. 

LONDON:    16   LITTLE  BRITAIN. 

1863. 


^7773 


ENTERED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1863,  by 

ABIEL  SILVEE, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


PEEFAOE. 


KEGAKDING  the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  the  Holy  Word 
of  the  Great  Jehovah,  and  believing  that  the  Words 
which  God  speaks  unto  us,  "  they  are  Spirit  and  they  are 
Life  "  to  human  souls,  given  for  their  regeneration  and  sal- 
vation ;  and  that  they  are  the  Foundation  and  Embodi- 
ment of  all  true  Laws  and  Kules  of  Life,  for  the  establish- 
ment and  preservation  of  order,  peace,  and  happiness,  in 
heaven  and  on  earth;  that  they  were  dictated  to  the 
writers  by  Infinite  "Wisdom,  and  designed  to  be  under- 
stood, loved  and  practised  by  men,  and  are  therefore  free 
from  all  contradictions  and  discrepancies,  and  expressed 
in  the  best  possible  form  for  meeting  the  vast  variety  of 
wants,  states,  and  conditions  of  human  beings,  for  all  time 
and  for  eternity ;  religiously  believing  this,  we  feel  it  to 
be  the  highest  privilege  and  duty  of  man  to  acknowledge 
them,  revere  them,  study  them,  love  them,  and  obey 
them ;  to  defend  and  sustain  them,  under  every  circum- 
stance or  event,  whereby  the  opinions  or  writings  of  men 
may  tend  to  throw  doubts  into  the  public  mind,  as  to 


PREFACE. 


their  entire  truthfulness  and  perspicuity  when  their  real 
meaning  is  seen ;  and  to  ever  strive,  as  we  value  the  sal- 
vation of  men,  to  bring  before  the  world  their  pure  and 
heavenly  light,  until  every  doubt  of  their  Divine  Excel- 
lence and  Perfection  shall  pass  away  before  the  increasing 
glory  of  that  Spiritual  Light  which  gradually  reveals,  to 
the  opening  intellect  and  obedient  heart,  their  perfect 
symmetry  and  beauty ;  that  thereby,  the  promised  day 
may  be  hastened,  when  the  "  Watchmen  shall  see  eye  to 
eye,"  and  when  "  there  shall  be  no  more  saying,  every 
man  to  his  neighbor,  Know  ye  the  LORD  ;  for  all  shall 
know  Him  from  the  least  unto  the  greatest." 

Under  these  settled  views  and  convictions,  we  read 
the  work  entitled,  "  THE  PENTATEUCH  AND  BOOK  OF 
JOSHUA,  CRITICALLY  EXAMINED,  by  the  Right  JRev.  JOHN 
WILLIAM  COLP:NSO,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Natal.  New  York: 
D.  APPLETON  &  Co.,  1863 ;  "  and  we  rose  from  the  peru- 
sal, laden  with  the  impression  that  we  should  offer  to  the 
public  what  we  have  written  in  this  Book.  Not,  how- 
ever, as  an  answer,  in  detail,  to  all  the  particular  objec- 
tions of  the  Bishop,  but  a  General  Answer,  covering  all 
the  ground,  not  only  of  "  Part  First,"  but  also  of  "  Part 
Second,"  of  the  work  above  mentioned,  and,  indeed,  of 
all  other  works  which  such  objectors  may  publish.  But 
though  we  cover  the  entire  ground,  yet  it  will  be  readily 
seen,  that  a  work  of  this  size  can  be  but  a  mere  opening 
of  the  Great  Subject  of  all  subjects,  with  such  references, 
illustrations  of  Scripture,  and  arguments,  based  upon 
Firwt  and  Eternal  Principles,  as  are  self-evident  and  irre- 


i 

PREFACE. 


futable,  and  which  we  hope  may  throw  such  light  upon 
the  subject,  from  the  Holy  Word,  and  the  "Works  of  God, 
as  may  arrest  the  progress  of  Infidelity,  by  turning  the 
thoughts  of  many,  through  the  Analogy  of  the  Divine 
Language,  into  a  spiritually  rational,  religious  channel ; 
and  which  may  also  serve  as  a  suggestion  to  abler  pens, 
to  improve  the  present  opportunity  to  give,  to  inquiring 
minds,  the  rational  and  illuminating  views  of  God  and 
His  Word,  and  of  the  Way  of  Life,  which  the  wants  of 
the  present  age  of  commotion  so  much  demand,  and 
which  the  merciful  Lord,  by  the  Spiritual  Light  of  the 
Word,  has  so  amply  provided. 

In  this  work  we  lay  no  claim  to  originality,  either  in 
the  harmony  of  the  System,  the  Doctrines  we  present,  or 
in  the  Science  of  Correspondences.  The  diction  and 
manner  of  treating  the  subject,  only  are  ours.  All  the 
principles  and  views  rest  in,  and  can  be  rationally  sus- 
tained by,  the  Word  and  Works  of  the  Most  High  God. 
Our  entire  argument,  therefore,  is,  Thus  saith  God's 
Wordy  and,  Thus  say  God  's  Works. 

We  have  confined  ourselves  chiefly  to  God's  Word 
and  Works,  without  note  or  comment  upon  the  views  of 
others.  This  is  because  there  is  no  other  source  of  knowl- 
edge, and  because  to  this  Court  we  must  finally  appeal  to 
determine  the  truth  or  falsity  of  anything  contained  in 
the  countless  volumes  which  have  been  written  upon  the. 
Holy  Word.  And  our  desire  and  aim  have  been  to  defend 
the  Sacred  Scriptures,  or  rather  to  let  them  defend  them- 
selves, against  the  skeptical  influence  which  the  objections 


6  PEEFACE. 

that  Dr.  Colenso  and  his  Keviewers  are  raising  to  the 
literal  narrative,  and  then  leaving  it  in  the  dark,  may 
have  upon  the  public  mind.  This  we  have  hoped  to  do 
by  showing  that  the  contradictions  and  discrepancies 
which  appear  upon  the  surface  of  the  letter  of  the  Word, 
are  not  errors  which  have  crept  into  the  work  through  any 
carelessness,  ignorance,  or  unfaithfulness  of  the  hands 
through  which  It  has  passed;  but  that  He  who  gave  us 
the  Holy  Word,  made  it,  in  the  original  tongues,  perfect, 
and  has  carefully  preserved  it;  and  that,  when  under- 
stood, it  will  be  found  to  be  free  from  all  errors. 

Jt  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise,  that  Dr.  Colenso,  in  his 
sincere  searching  of  the  Scriptures  and  desire  for  the 
truth,  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  of  men,  should,  in  the 
honest  convictions  of  his  heart,  be  troubled  at  the 
obstacles  which  appear  in  the  way  of  their  truthfulness. 
And  we  respect  his  noble  frankness  in  declaring  to  the 
world  his  convictions,  while  he  still  retains  a  profound 
reverence  for  the  Book.  Standing  where  the  Doctor 
does,  and  looking  with  the  eyes  with  which  he  sees,  he  is 
right  in  his  conlusions  that  the  "  Mosaic  narrative  .  .  . 
cannot  be  regarded  as  historically  t/rue"  so  far  as  regards 
all  the  natural  events  mentioned.  But  we  hope  to  con- 
vince the  sincere  and  faithful  reader  of  the  following 
pages,  and  from  the  Word  itself,  that  It  is  a  t/rue  history 
of  mental  things,  or  of  the  creation  and  actions  of  minds ; 
that  there  is,  running  through  the  entire  Word,  a  historj 
of  higher  tiling  than  tho.-r  of  time  and  mutter, 
the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  souls  of  men  and  the  con- 


PREFACE.  7 

"4heir  character  under  all  states  and  circum- 
stanc^Sj^whether  in  this  world  or  the  next ;  and  also 
revealing  to  us  a  knowledge  of  our  God,  of  our  souls,  and 
of  our  duty ;  and  that,  in  order  to  give  to  man  this  knowl- 
edge of  spiritual  things,  natural  things  are  used  as  sym- 
bols ;  and  that  thus  it  is  that  we  may  rationally  look 
through  nature  up  to  natures  God,  and  know  that  the 
""Invisible  things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  Godhead."  (Rom.  i, 
20.)  Not  that  there  is  not  generally  a  true,  literal  sense  in 
the  Word,  by  the  influence  of  which  many  souls  are  saved. 
But  notwithstanding  we  have,  in  most  of  the  Divine 
Word,  an  account  of  things  which  have  taken  place  in 
this  natural  world,  and  the  plain  commandments  given 
which  all  may  understand,  yet  there  is  given,  at  the  same 
time,  a  correct  narrative  of  Spiritual  or  mental  things, 
which  may  be  seen  and  understood,  by  the  sure  law  of 
Analogy  which  shows  the  relation  between  natural  and 
spiritual  things,  revealing  a  Spiritual  Sense  within  the 
literal.  And  our  only  hope  of  use,  in  preparing  this  work 
is,  that  Light  from  the  Holy  Word  Itself,  showing  Its 
Symbolic  Character,  may  tend  to  sustain  Its  Divine 
Authenticity,  and  elevate  It  in  the  public  estimation ; 
and,  at  least,  to  convince  some  wayward  and  doubting 
souls  of  the  true  Nature  and  Character  of  God  and  His 
Word,  and  thus  to  bring  them  to  the  Divine  Fountain, 
that  they  may  drink  of  Its  Spirit  and  Its  Life,  and  be 
saved.  For  if  there  are  any  things  of  more  importance 


8  PREFACE. 

than  others  for  man  to  know  and  to  lay  to  heart,  they  are 
a  true  knowledge  of  his  God,  of  himself,  and  of  his  duties 
and  destiny  as  revealed  in  God's  Word.  "  Forever,  O 
LORD,  Thy  "Word  is  settled  in  heaven.  The  entrance  of 
Thy  "Words  giveth  Light ;  it  giveth  understanding  unto 
the  simple."  (Ps.  cxix,  89, 130.) 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PEEFACE, 3 

OHAP.  I. — INTBODUCTION, 11 

II. — Substance,  Form  and  Quality  of  the  Divine  Being,      .    21 
III. — Nature  of  Man,  and  the  Origin  of  Evil,        .  .34 

IV. — Action  and  Reaction :   Good  and  its  Rewards :   Evil 

and  its  Consequences, 48 

V.— The  Divine  Influx, 58 

VL— God  and  Creation ;  or,  Cause  and  Effect,       .        .         66 
VII. — The  Science   of   Correspondences  the   Key  to    the 

Human  Mind, 75 

VIE.— The  Necessity  of  a  Divine  Revelation,    ...         87 

IX.— The  Real  and  the  Apparent, 99 

X. — The  Spiritual  and  the  Natural  Senses  of  the  Word : 
The  Spiritual  and  the  Natural  Mind  of  Man : 
The  Advents  of  the  Lord  into  the  Human  Mind,     .       109 

XL— The  Universal  Language, 121 

XII. — The  Microcosm  and  the  Macrocosm,  .  .  .  130 
XIII. — The  Correspondence  of  Numbers,  .  .  .  .151 
XIV.— Heat  and  Light :  Love  and  Wisdom,  ...  173 

XV. — New  Bottles  for  new  Wine, 184 

XVI.— The  Correspondence  of  Salt,  and  of  Lot's  Wife,      .       196 


10  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


XVII.— A  Word  to  Biblical  Skeptics ;  from  the  case  of  Jonah 

swallowed  by  a  great  fish, 205 

XVni.— The  Lost  and  the  Found ;  the  Science  of  Correspond- 
ences lost  at  the  building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel ; 
found  in  loosing  the  Seven  Seals,        .        .        .      219 
XIX.— The  Books  of  the  Bible,  with  or  without  the  Spiritual 

Sense, 233 

XX.— The  Church, 240 

XXI.— Heaven  and  Hell, 281 

XXII.— The  New  Birth, 293 


TJ&I7EESIT7 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

GOD  has  given  His  Word  to  Man  to  teach  him, — First, 
what  God  is :  Second,  what  Man  is :  Third,  how  Man 
loses  God's  image  and  becomes  a  devil :  Fourth,  how  he 
obtains  that  image  and  becomes  an  angel ;  and,  Fifth, 
the  consequences  of  being  either  an  angel  or  a  devil. 
Every  sentence  of  the  Holy  Word  involves  something  of 
these  things. 

As  words  are  signs  of  ideas,  so  they  point  in  the  Word 
to  two  kinds  of  ideas, — natural  and  spiritual.  Natural 
ideas  relate  to  things  of  the  body,  and  of  this  world  :  spir- 
itual ideas,  to  things  of  the  mind,  and  of  the  spiritual 
world.  We  must  have  some  natural  thing,  that  we  know 
something  about,  as  a  symbol  of  the  quality  of  a  certain 
principle  of  the  mind,  and  through  which  we  can  look,  by 
correspondence,  or  we  cannot  entertain  the  true  spiritual 
idea  of  that  mental  principle.  We  are  living  here  in  a 
world  of  externals,  with  all  internal  things  discreetly 
above  the  natural  senses  and  all  natural  thoughts.  Every 
spiritual  idea  must  be  embraced  through  a  natural 
thought,  by  analogy.  Every  spiritual  idea  must  have  a 
natural  idea  as  a  body  through  which  it  may  be  seen. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

Now,  the  words  of  the  Lord  are  used  to  express  both 
natural  and  spiritual  ideas.  But  men  generally  see  in 
them  only  the  natural  ideas.  All  natural  things  may,  by 
correspondence,  be  called  words  of  God,  whether  spoken 
by  the  mouth  or  not ;  whether  named  in  a  book,  or  seen 
in  the  fields  of  nature.  All  things  of  nature  speak  ;  and 
they  speak  both  natural  and  spiritual  things.  The  natu- 
ral ideas  are  often  seen  by  men,  the  spiritual  but  seldom. 
A  beautiful  landscape  suggests  thousands  of  thoughts 
upon  natural  qualities.  But  the  spiritual  ideas  are  not 
seen,  without  some  knowledge  of  the  analogy  between 
the  quality  and  use  of  the  natural  things,  and  the  life 
which  infills  them  ;  and  also  of  the  relation  between  that 
life  and  the  human  mind.  For  the  forms,  qualities,  and 
uses  of  natural  things,  always  express,  by  analogy,  spirit- 
ual principles,  or  qualities  of  the  human  mind.  It  is  for 
this  express  purpose,  that  the  things  of  nature  are  so 
much  made  use  of  in  the  Holy  Word. 

But  the  analogy  stops  not  here,  but  reaches  into  arti- 
ficial things.  Everything  of  art  or  labor  suggests  the  natu- 
ral ideas  of  the  mind  that  formed  it.  And,  if  it  be  an 
artificial  work,  directed  by  the  Lord,  and  recorded  in  His 
Word,  like  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  or  like  the  Temple, 
it  suggests  spiritual  ideas  through  natural  ideas.  Thus 
everything  a  man  does  is  expressive  of  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  which  bring  it  forth  ;  and,  when  recorded  in  the 
I  Inly  Word,  it  denotes  spiritual  ideas  and  principles. 
Therefore,  all  histories  recorded  in  the  Holy  Word  con- 
tain, within  them,  histories  of  things  which  take  place  in 
human  minds. 

In  every  part  of  the  Holy  Word,  there  must  be  a  spir- 
itual H-niiication.  And  mankind  ought  to  know  this 
from  the  plain  literal  teachings  of  the  Lord.  For  He 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

expressly  says  He  speaks  to  tliem  in  parables :  and  that, 
"  Without  a  parable  spake  He  not  unto  them."  By  this 
we  learn  that  the  plain  literal  events,  recorded  in  the 
"Word,  even  where  they  occurred  precisely  as  stated,  are 
all  parables ;  that  is,  they  all  contain  a  hidden  meaning 
higher  than  the  literal  sense. 

Now,  a  literal  event  of  which  we  read  in  the  Word, 
may  have  occurred  as  recorded,  or  it  may  not.  It  is  a 
parable  in  either  case  ;  and  conveys  true  spiritual  instruc- 
tion by  correspondence.  And  so  a  command  may  be  in- 
tended to  be  obeyed  naturally,  or  it  may  not.  If  it  sim- 
ply says,  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill,  steal,  or  lie,"  the  literal 
sense  is,  Thou  shalt  not  do  it  in  outward  act  of  the  body. 
But  the  spiritual  sense  is,  that  thou  shalt  not  do  it  in  will, 
intention,  thought,  or  desire.  And  both  of  these  senses 
should  be  understood  and  obeyed. 

So,  when  the  Lord  says  that  unless  we  eat  His  flesh 
and  drink  His  blood  we  have  no  life  in  us,  there  are  also 
two  senses ;  but  both  of  these  senses  cannot  be  obeyed. 
This  scripture  only  teaches  that  we  must  appropriate  to 
our  souls  the  goods  and  truths  of  the  Word,  to  which  the 
flesh  and  blood  correspond.  The  words  '  flesh  and  blood ' 
give  the  natural  ideas,  through  which  we  reach  the  spir- 
itual. We  can  have  no  idea  or  thought  of  goodness  and 
truth  as  abstract  principles,  until,  by  correspondence,  we 
can  see  them  as  real  spiritual  substances  that  can  be  ap- 
propriated to  our  souls. 

Thus,  all  Holy  Scripture  is  applicable  to  human  life, 
and  is  profitable  for  doctrine  and  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness. And,  when  we  come  to  parts  of  the  Word,  which 
seem  to  us  to  present  no  practical  instruction,  and  are 
mysterious,  we  should  set  it  down,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
that  its  essential  meaning  and  use  to  us  are  in  the  internal 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

sense.  And,  in  looking  for  the  spiritual  sense,  we  must 
always  look  into  the  human  mind.  "We  must  not  lose 
sight  of  the  fact,  that  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  "Word  is 
mental — completely  and  in  toto  mental.  And  that,  in 
looking  through  the  literal  sense,  we  look  into  the  world 
of  mind.  Then,  when  we  come  to  a  passage  of  Scripture 
from  the  letter  of  which  we  cannot  draw  any  instruction 
of  practical  use,  we  must  remember  that  the  Almighty 
God  has  spoken  it :  and  though  the  literal  sense,  which  is 
in  man's  language,  appear  unimportant,  yet  the  spiritual 
sense,  which  is  in  God's  language,  must  contain  matter 
of  the  highest  importance  and  benefit  to  man. 

Then  let  us  approach  its  illustration  with  that  rever- 
ence due  to  the  "Word  of  the  Most  High  God,  feeling  that 
it  is  addressed  to  each  of  us  individually ;  and  that,  to 
find  its  highest  use  to  us,  we  must  look  through  the  letter 
into  our  own  minds;  remembering  that  every  circum- 
stance or  thing  mentioned  in  the  "Word  corresponds  to 
some  principle  or  movement  in  the  "human  soul,  or  in 
God.  For  we  see  no  possibility  of  any  person's  having 
true  ideas  of  the  Lord,  either  in  this  world  or  the  other, 
but  from  the  Holy  "Word.  We  regard  the  Word  of  God 
as  the  only  true  medium  between  our  Heavenly  Father 
and  man,  whereby  we  can  know  the  Lord,  because  He  is 
the  Word.  It  is  therefore  the  only  light  by  which  the 
understanding  can  form  any  correct  thoughts  of  Him. 
For  the  Word  of  God  is  the-  Light  and  Life  of  heaven  ; 
therefore,  without  it  the  angels  could  neither  see  nor 
speak.  And  while  God-  is  the  very  Life  of  the  natural 
universe,  and  all  things,  more  or  less,  speak  His  Word 
either  in  direct  or  in  inverted  accents,  yet  it  is  seen  there 
only  in  appearances,  and  fallen  man  could  never  know 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

his   God  without  a  revealed,  written,  or  spoken  Word, 
from  the  Lord  Himself. 

But  it  is  asked  if  angels  cannot  teach  man  divine 
truths.  Good  angels  must  know  the  "Word,  and  must  use 
their  efforts  to  infuse  the  spirit  of  that  Word  into  man,  by 
inclining  him  to  open  his  heart  to  the  Lord,  and  His 
Word,  for  that  Spirit.  But  they  surely  would  not  under- 
take to  teach  man  divine  things,  except  from  the  Word. 
For  they  must  know  well  their  own  weakness,  and  their 
entire  dependence  upon  that  Word  for  all  true  thoughts 
and  right  feelings.  Therefore,  could  we  now  meet  them 
face  to  face,  and  ask  them  for  divine  wisdom  and  instruc- 
tion, they  would  doubtless  direct  us  to  the  written  Word, 
and  to  the  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  therein  given. 
For  they  would  of  course  say,  as  did  father  Abraham  to 
the  spirit  of  the  rich  man  who  wanted  a  messenger  sent 
back  to  this  world  to  warn  his  brethren  to  prepare  for 
heaven,  "  They  have  Moses  and  the  prophets ;  let  them 
hear  them."  And  it  is  a  solemn  truth,  that  if  men  hear 
not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  per- 
suaded, though  one  should  rise  from  the  dead.  -  The  rea- 
son is,  the  Holy  Word  is  a  nearer  and  better  medium  of 
life  to  man  than  any  angel  can*  possibly  be.  For  it  is 
infinite  in  varieties,  and  is  adapted  to  every  possible  state 
and  condition  of  man,  either  in  this  world  or  the  other. 
Its  Spirit  and  Life  are  infinite,  rational,  affectionate,  and 
powerful,  knowing  and  feeling  for  the  wants  of  all,  and 
how  best  to  reach  them.  Through  the  Word,  the  Lord 
has  an  immediate  connection  with  men,  much  stronger 
than  He  can  have  through  angels.  For,  as  the  Lord's 
words  are  spirit  and  life,  so,  when  men  drink  them  into 
their  souls  from  that  Fountain,  the  truths  come  more 
pure  and  refreshing  than  through  any  human  mediums. 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

Now,  without  truth  from  the  Word,  men  cannot,  in 
any  way,  converse  with  each  other  rationally  about  the 
Lord,  nor  express  any  proper  thoughts  or  ideas  concern- 
ing Him.  And,  at  this  age,  it  requires  the  spiritual 
truths  of  the  Word  to  remove  the  clouds,  which  the  tra- 
ditions of  men  have  thrown  around  the  plain  literal 
sense.  This  spiritual  truth  opens  the  Prophecies,  so  that 
we  can  look  understandingly  back,  and  see  the  true  pro- 
cess of  their  fulfilment.  And,  by  the  Law  of  Analogy,  we 
can  also  look  forward  and  behold  something  of  the  order 
in  which  they  are  to  be  spiritually  fulfilled.  The  Lord 
has  not  yet  come  the  first  time,  to  those  who  receive  not 
the  literal  truths  of  the  gospel ;  nor  has  He  come  the  sec- 
ond time,  to  those  who  receive  not  the  spiritual  truths. 
And  we  cannot  better  introduce  the  reader  to  the  confi- 
dence we  feel  in  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word,  and  to 
the  high  ground  which  the  Word  Itself  will  take,  in  Its 
Own  defence,  in  the  following  chapters,  than  by  a  quo- 
tation from  our  "  Lectures  on  the  Symbolic  Character  of 
the  Sacred  Scriptures,"  just  published  by  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.,  New  York. 

"  All  truths  are  eternal  verities.  They  are  ever  and 
unchangeably  the  same:  About  them,  when  seen,  men 
do  not  differ.  It  is  about  falsehoods,  and  where  truths 
are  not  seen,  that  the  intellectual  world  is  contending. 

"  The  doctrines  of  the  Word,  when  seen  in  the  light 
of  correspondence,  become  themselves  the  indisputable 
evidence  of  their  own  truth  :  for  correspondence  is  a  lan- 
guage. It  may  well  be  denominated  the  language ;  for  it 
is  the  sure  language  of  Jehovah.  It  is,  therefore,  a  living 
language.  It  is  the  only  language  that  has  spirit  and 
life.  It  is  a  universal  language :  the  language  in  which 
not  only  the  Holy  Word,  but  universal  nature,  with  her 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

ten  thousand  tongues,  is  speaking  to  us.  Does  any  one 
doubt  the  existence  of  such  a  language  ?  Let  him  learn 
to  read  it.  No  one  who  has  ever  learned  it  has  any  such 
doubts.  Does  he  say  no  one  ever  has  learned  it  ?  How 
does  he  know  that  ?  Thousands  of  persons,  entitled  to 
respect,  say  they  have  studied  it,  and  find  it  to  be  a  most 
sure  and  certain  language.  Where,  then,  rests  the  weight 
of  evidence  ?  Who  is  the  best  judge  of  a  book,  he  that 
has  read  it,  or  he  that  has  not  ? 

"  By  this  science,  the  Sacred  Scripture  is  convincingly 
proved  to  be  the  Word  of  the  Infinite  Jehovah.  All  its 
parts  thereby  blend  into  harmony.  The  darkest  and 
most  obscure  passages  are  opened  and  explained,  and  the 
simplest  portions  are  filled  with  profound  wisdom.  Every 
passage  is,  indeed,  seen  to  be  "  Profitable  for  doctrine, 
for  reproof,  for  correction,  and  for  instruction  in  right- 
eousness," according  to  the  apostle's  declaration.  But, 
without  this  science,  has  any  one  found  it  to  be  so  ?  If 
the  Bible  was  given  by  God  to  man  to  teach  him  some- 
thing, was  it  not  intended  to  be  understood  3  Has  God 
endowed  man  with  reason,  addressed  him  as  a  reasonable 
being,  said  to  him,  "  Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  togeth- 
er," given  him  His  Word  as  a  rule  of  life,  to  show  him 
what  he  must  do  and  what  he  must  not ;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  interspersed  throughout  that  Word  thousands 
of  things  which  he  can  never  understand,  and  which  are 
of  no  use  to  him  ?  JSTot  so.  Infinite  Wisdom  has  not  so 
indefinitely  expressed  Himself  that  He  cannot  be  under- 
stood. 

"  The  difficulty  is  with  man.  He,  by  a  false  and  evil 
life,  has  lost  the  pure  Language  of  Analogy  in  which 
God  speaks.  But,  by  the  Divine  Mercy  of  the  Lord,  that 
language  is  again  restored.  That  sublime  Key  to  the  in- 


18  INTKODUCnON. 

exhaustible  Treasury  of  intellectual  "Wealth,  contained  in 
the  Word  and  Works  of  God,  is  now  mercifully  made 
known.  The  great  Seminary  of  scientific  wisdom  has  be- 
come accessible  to  man.  For  this  divine  Key  not  only 
unlocks  God's  Book  of  Eevelation,  but  also,  at  the  same 
time,  His  Book  of  Nature.  And  as  we  are  thereby  con- 
ducted within  the  veil  of  the  letter  of  the  Word,  and  per- 
mitted to  feast  upon  the  pure  bread  and  water  of  life,  and 
to  admire  the  glory  and  beauty  of  that  divine  Sanctuary, 
so  we  have,  also,  a  passport  within  the  veil  of  universal 
Nature,  where  we  find  enthroned  pure  spiritual  Philoso- 
phy, expounding  the  invisible  relations  which  unite  heav- 
en and  earth ;  elucidating  those  otherwise  incomprehen- 
sible affinities  which  exist  between  life  and  matter,  God 
and  Nature,  the  mind  and  the  brain,  the  soul  and  the 
body.  In  passing  this  veil  we  enter  the  School  of  all 
schools,  look  up  to  the  Teacher  of  all  teachers,  and  study 
the  Science  of  all  sciences.  The  books  we  read  are  the 
Books  of  all  books — the  book  of  Nature  and  the  book  of 
Eevelation.  They  are  both  published  by  the  same  Au- 
thor illustrate  the  same  principles,  and  lead  to  the  same 
conclusions.  Both  books  are  necessary  to  the  prop'er 
study  of  either.  All  the  objects  in  nature  are  so  many 
true  indices,  pointing  to  the  history  of  their  creation  and 
the  cause  of  their  existence ;  and  referring  us  for  informa- 
tion to  the  written  Word,  to  which  they  are  the  Grand 
Concordance.  At  such  a  seminary,  with  such  books,  and 
such  a  Teacher,  we  may  obtain  heavenly  wisdom  and 
feast  on  angels'  food. 

"  But,  it  is  asked,  what  is  the  strongest  and  most  con- 
clusive evidence  which  we  have  to  offer  in  proof  of  the 
truth  and  certainty  of  this  new  science?  We  answer 
that  no  evidence  can  be  sufficiently  clear  and  full  to  sat- 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

isfy  a  mind  that  will  not  look  at  it,  or  that  has  no  taste 
nor  desire  for  things  beyond  the  gift  of  this  world.  But, 
if  even  such  a  person  were  entirely  unacquainted  with 
the  Chinese  language,  and  should  remove  to  China,  and 
there  learn  to  speak  and  write  that  languagey  so  as  to 
read  their  books  and  understand  them,  and  should  find 
that  they  contained  a  rational  and  consecutive  chain 
of  ideas  and  history  of  events,  he  would  certainly  be 
convinced  that  they  had  a  language,  and  that  he  had 
learned  it.  It  is  precisely  so  with  the  language  of 
analogy.  It  must^be  examined,  and  learned,  and  tested 
by  reading  analogical  language  before  it  can  be  under- 
stood. 

"  Now,  let  that  same  man  come  to  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures, and  look  at  the  first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis,  the 
twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Matthew,  the  tenth  of  Ezekiel, 
and  th'e  twenty-first  of  Eevelation,  and  he  will  be  as  much 
at  a  loss  to  know  their  true  meaning,  as  he  was  that  of 
the  Chinese  language,  when  he  went  to  that  country. 
But  let  him  learn  the  language  of  analogy,  until  his  heart 
is  warmed  by  the  spirit  of  the  Holy  Word, -and  he  can 
see  a  beautiful  and  consistent  course  of  useful  instruction, 
pervading  the  entire  chapters  mentioned ;  and,  not  only 
them,  but  also  the  whole  "Word,  making  it  a  new  Book, 
most  clear  and  instructive;  and  he  will  then  be  much 
more  strongly  convinced  of  the  indisputable  verity  of  this 
language,  than  he  was,  or  could  possibly  be,  of  that  of  the 
Chinese. 

"  Now,  we  can  say  to  such  persons,  that  many  are  the 
human  minds,  of  different  nations  of  the  earth,  who  are 
becoming  thus  convinced.  Will  not  God's  Holy  Word, 
then,  yet  become  known,  as  it  is,  and  be  universally 
received,  loved,  and  regarded  ?  Will  it  not  become  the 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

great  law  of  the  land,  and  restore  universal  '  Peace  on 
earth  and  good  will  toward  men '  ?  It  most  surely  will. 
That  glorious  shout  of  the  angels,  at  the  birth  of  our  Lord, 
was  not  made  in  vain — '  Behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings 
of  great  joy,  which  shall  be  unto  all  people.' ' 

Those  who  desire  to  investigate  the  doctrines  of  the 
Word  and  the  science  of  correspondences  presented  in  the 
following  pages,  may  find  the  rationale  of  them,  clearly 
and  satisfactorily  shown,  in  the  voluminous  works  of 
EMANUEL  SWEDENBORG,  referred  to  in  chapter  xviii  of  this 
book.  But  we  have  made  no  quotations  from  those 
works,  desiring  rather  to  reach  the  public  mind  with  facts 
and  arguments  drawn  exclusively  from  the  Word  and 
works  of  God ;  to  which  the  prejudices  of  men  cannot  rea- 
sonably object. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  SUBSTANCE,  FOBM,  AND  QUALITY  OF  THE  DIVINE  BEING. 

"  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the 
Word  was  God." — JOHN  i,  1. 

WHAT  is  the  Word  of  God  ?  This  is  the  great  question 
before  us.  The  answer  to  this  question  is  the  answer  to 
all  Dr.  Colenso's  objections.  Now,  as  the  Word  is  de- 
clared in  the  text  to  be  God,  and  as  the  Lord  declares  that 
the  Words  which  He  speaks  to  us,  "  they  are  spirit  and 
they  are  life,"  and  as  "  God  is  a  Spirit "  (John  iv,  24),  the 
first  question  before  us  is,  What  is  God  ?  Indeed,  all  true 
knowledge  of  God,  His  Word,  or  His  works,  must  take  its 
rise  in  a  true  idea  of  God  Himself.  For,  according  to  the 
ideas  men  have  of  the  qualities  and  character  of  the  God 
they  revere  and  love  and  worship,  .must  be  the  character 
of  their  religion,  and  of  their  views  of  the  theology  of  the 
Holy  Word.  Therefore,  if  we  would  successfully  study 
God's  Word  and  Works,  we  must  commence  with  the 
study  of  God.  But  here  we  are  asked,  "  Who,  by  search- 
ing, can  find  out  God  ? "  We  are  not  to  find  Him  out  by 
our  own  wisdom.  We  are  to  humbly  seek  and  receive 
Him  as  He  has  revealed  Himself  in  His  Word.  There,  we 


22  THE   DIVINE  BEING. 

are  commanded  to  become  like  Him.  This  can  be  done 
only  as  we  gain  a  knowledge  and  love  of  Him. 

Now,  His  entire  "Word  treats  of  Him.  The  Law  and 
the  Prophets  constantly  declare  Him,  and  He  is  emphati- 
cally manifested  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  says,  "  I 
and  my  Father  are  one."  And  the  "Word  teaches  that 
God  is  Infinite,  Omniscient,  and  Omnipresent ;  Unchange- 
able and  Eternal ;  the  Creator  and  Sustainer  of  the  uni- 
verse. And  the  question  at  once  arises,  Can  a  finite  mind 
have  a  rational  thought  of  such  a  Being  ?  We  answer, 
Yes.  Not  an  Infinite  thought,  but  a  rational  one,  in  its 
degree.  Now  the  first  approach  toward  a  real  thought 
of  God  is  an  idea  of  spiritual  substance,  which  is  mental, 
and  entirely  discrete  and  distinct  from  matter,  and  which 
cannot  be  reached  by  the  senses.of  the  natural  body.  If 
we  do  not  entertain  this  idea  of  spiritual  substance,  we 
have  no  distinct  thought  of  anything  above  gross  matter ; 
therefore  no  distinct  thought  of  God,  angel,  spirit,  or  even 
of  man ;  for  the  material  body  is  not  the  man,  but  the 
tabernacle  of  clay  in  which  he  lives. 

Having  an  idea  of  spiritual  substance,  the  next  step 
toward  a  true  idea  of  the  Lord  is  a  proper  thought  of  the 
quality  of  His  substance ;  for  we  may  know  that  we  can 
have  no  real  knowledge  of  anything  but  by  its  qualities. 
We  have  now  before  us  an  infinite,  almighty,  spiritual 
substance.  What  are  its  qualities  ?  The  Holy  Word  tells 
UB  that  the  Lord  is  Life,  Love,  Wisdom,  Goodness,  Truth, 
Righteousness ;  that  He  is  Our  Kighteousness ;  that  He 
in  vutli  life,  wisdom,  goodness,  truth,  and  righteousness  to 
tin  people. 

Having  proceeded  thus  far,  are  we  not  now  ready  to 
define  Him,  from  His  own  testimony,  to  be  Substantial 
ami  Almighty  Love  and  Wisdom,  or  Goodness  and 


THE  DIVINE  BEING.  23 

Truth?  What  other,  so  high,  ideas  of  excellence  can 
enter  the  human  mind  ?  The  thought  can  grasp  at 
nothing  else  so  high  as  Infinite  and  Almighty  Goodness 
and  Truth.  But  we  are  now  asked  if  these  are  not  mere 
attributes  of  a  great  Being  and  entirely  passive  in  them- 
selves, operating  only  when  exercised  by  the  will  and  un- 
derstanding of  that  great  Being  ?  But  why  ask  this  ques- 
tion now?  Has  the  interrogator  so  soon  lost  sight  of 
mental  substance  ?  Let  us  ask  him  what  other  substanco 
than  Goodness  and  Truth  can  constitute  the  great  Jeho- 
vah ?  Will  he  bring  it  forward  within  the  reach  of  our 
thoughts?  What  other  substance  can  be  omnipresent? 
Goodness  and  Truth  are  not  passive  or  dead  principles. 
The  life  of  Goodness  is  Love,  and  the  life  of  Truth  is 
Wisdom.  Love  and  Wisdom  are  Goodness  and  Truth  in 
action.  What  can  give  forth  more  Love  than  Infinite 
Goodness,  or  more  Wisdom  than  Infinite  Truth  ?  What 
human  mind  without  goodness  has  any  genuine  love,  or 
without  truth  has  any  real  wisdom  ?  And  where  does  he 
get  these  things  ?  What  else  could  God  give  to  our  wills 
that  would  make  us  so  merciful  and  happy  as  would  His 
goodness ;  or  to  our  understandings  that  would  make  us 
so  honest  and  just  as  would  His  truth  ? 

But  here  we  are  told  that,  when  the  Lord  regenerates 
a  man,  He  makes  him  a  good  and  true  man,  and  that  then 
He  will  be  merciful  and  just.  But  does  not  the  Lord,  in 
this  work,  take  away  from  him  something  evil  and  false, 
and  give  him  something  good  and  true?  Is  it  man's 
own  righteousness  or  the  Lord's  that  dwells  in  him,  that 
is  kind  and  just,  and  does  the  good  works  ?  It  is  a 
mistaken  philosophy  which  would  teach  that  all  the 
elements  of  the  man  are  innate  in  the  infant,  and  that 
all  that  is  necessary  is  properly  to  call  out  and  develop 


24  THE   DIVINE   BEING. 

those  principles.  For,  if  so,  why  is  one  developed  a  mer- 
ciful man  and  another  a  murderer,  both  springing  from  the 
same  Divine  Source  ?  Man's  mind  is  developed  by  what 
he  appropriates  of  the  goods  and  truths,  or  evils  and  falsi- 
ties which  are  offered  it.  As  well  might  the  natural  body 
of  an  infant  be  developed  without  natural  food,  as  the 
mind  without  spiritual  food.  Therefore,  the  Lord  says, 
"  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door,  and  knock :  if  any  man 
hear  my  voice  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him, 
and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me."  (Kev.  iii,  20.) 
What  is  this  reciprocal  supping  but  the  receiving  of  good- 
ness and  truth  from  the  Lord,  and  returning  them  to  Him 
in  love  and  obedience  ?  "What  other  divine  food  is  there 
for  them  to  use  ?  The  Lord  says,  He  will  come  in  and  sup 
with  them.  Does  not  some  substance  come  in  ?  It  may 
be  replied  that  it  is  His  Spirit.  Yery  well.  Is  not  His 
Spirit  something  substantial  and  powerful?  The  Lord 
says,  He  is  Life ;  and  that  He  giveth  life  to  the  world. 
Now,  if  this  life  is  not  substance,  He  does  not  give  the 
world  anything,,  For  no  substance  is  nothing.  Here, 
then,  we  have  a  substantial  Heavenly  Father,  with  quali- 
ties we  can  think  of  and  love,  and  Who  feeds  our  souls 
with  His  goodness  and  truth. 

And  as  He  has  substance,  so  also  He  must  have  form. 
But,  what  can  be  the  form  of  that  Substance  which  is 
Infinite  and  Omnipresent  ?  Of  this,  no  finite  mind  can 
fully  conceive ;  for  Infinity  is  not  limited  by  time  or  space. 
And  an  idea  of  form  without  an  idea  of  boundary  is  above 
the  reach  of  our  natural  thought.  And  yet  we  see  that, 
in  order  to  bring  the  reality  of  the  Mighty  God  rationally 
within  the  sphere  of  human  thought,  He  must  be  pre- 
sented to  the  understanding  in  a  form.  For  no  form  is 
no  substance,  which  is  equivalent  to  no  God..  And 


THE   DIVINE   BEING.  25 

though  the  form,  as  presented  to  man's  finite  mind,  must 
necessarily  be  finite,  and  thus  not  full,  yet  we  have  reason 
to  believe  that  the  Lord  has  so  adapted  His  Word  to  our 
capacities  as  to  give  us,  in  a  degree,  a  true,  though  faint 
and  limited  idea  of  the  Divine  Torm.  Now,  God  is  rep- 
resented in  the  Word  as  having  the  organs  of  the  human 
body,  and  man  is  said  to  be  created  in  His  image.  And, 
inasmuch  as  "  God  [in  His  love,  wisdom,  and  power]  was 
manifest  in  the  flesh ;  "  and  it  is  written  that  the  Lord, 
"  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be 
equal  with  God  "  (Phil,  ii,  6),  we  may  rationally  con- 
clude that,  in  looking  at  the  form  of  God  as  human,  we 
are,  to  say  the  least,  looking  toward  the  Great  Infinite 
Form  ;  and  that  thus,  having  before  the  thoughts  a  great 
and  glorious  Human  Form,  with  His  face  shining  as  the 
Sun,  and  His  raiment  white  as  the  light,  we  have  the  best 
idea  the  finite  mind  can  have  of  the  Infinite  Form  of  the 
Lord.  Indeed,  what  other  form  than  human  could  we 
give  Him  ?  it  being  the  most  perfect  form  that  has  entered 
our  thoughts.  We  have  now  before  us  a  distinct  idea  of 
God,  suited  to  our  states  and  capacities.  We  can  think 
of  Him  as  a  Heavenly  Father  in  substantial  form,  In- 
finitely good  and  true,  whom  we  can  love  and  worship  as 
the  Author  of  every  blessing. 

We  have  thus  found  the  Word  which  was  in  the  be- 
ginning with  God,  and  which  was  God.  This  Word  is 
the  Truth,  for  God  speaks  nothing  else.  It  was  "  in  the 
beginning  with  God,"  for  God  is  Goodness,  and  Goodness 
speaks  It.  It  "  was  God,"  because  It  was  His  Wisdom. 
This  Word  is  the  great  Source  of  all  being,  because  "  All 
things  were  made  by  Him,  and  without  Him  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made."  This  Word  is  the 
Divine  Wisdom,  because  "  God,  by  Wisdom,  made  the 


26  THE   DIVINE   BEING. 

world."  This  Word  contains  the  Divine  Love,  because 
"  In  Him  was  Life,"  and  Love  is  Life.  This  "  Life  was 
the  Light  of  men,"  because  Light  is  Truth,  and  Love  or 
Life  speaks  it.  This  "Word  was  the  Lord,  because  "  the 
Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  "  men,  and  they 
"  beheld  his  glory."  This  "Word  had  Divine  Powers, 
because,  "  as  many  as  believed  on  Him,  to  them  gave 
He  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God."  He  is  "  the  only 
Wise  God  our  Saviour,"  because  He  has  "  all  power  in 
heaven  and  on  earth,"  is  the  "  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the 
Beginning  and  the  Ending,  the  First  and  the  Last."  In 
Him  was  the  Father,  because  He  says,  "  The  Father  that 
is  within  Me,  He  doeth  the  works."  The  Father — the 
Love  Element— is  the  spring  of  action,  and  the  Truth 
or  "Word  executes — "God,  by  "Wisdom,  made  the  world." 
This  Father  and  Son,  or  Love  and  the  "Word,  are  insepara- 
bly one  Being,  because  He  says,  "  I  and  my  Father  are 
One."  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me,  hath  seen  the  Father." 
"  "Why  sayest  thou.  Show  us  the  Father  ?  Believest  thou 
not  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  Me  ? " 
He  possessed  the  Holy  Spirit,  because  "He  breathed 
upon  His  disciples  and  said,  Eeceive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost."  Well,  then,  could  the  Apostle  say,  "  In  Him 
dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  Bodily." 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  Triune  God — the  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit — presented  in  the  Love,  Wisdom,  and 
Power  of  the  Lord.  A  regenerated  man  is  in  His  image 
and  likeness,  and  is  a  recipient  of  the  three  Elements. 
They  constitute  the  Living  Influx  from  the  Divine  Mind 
into  the  human,  without  which  we  could  have  no  true 
thoughts,  good  feelings,  or  right  actions.  To  study  the 
Holy  Word  and  understand  its  elements  and  doctrines, 
we  ranst  never  lose  sight  of  the  Trine  of  First  Principles. 


THE  DIVINE   BEING.  27 

It  is  only  in  this  one  grand  idea  that -we  can  have  a  ra- 
tional thought  of  God.  And  we  should  bear  in  mind  that 
we  can  have  no  distinct  idea  of  anything,  unless  that  idea 
contains  a  true  thought  of  its  qualities.  And  the  qualities 
of  the  Divine  Trinity  of  First  Principles — Love,  "Wisdom, 
and  Power,  or  Goodness,  Truth,  and  Force— are  the 
standard  by  which  we  are  to  test  the  relative  quality  of 
every  spiritual  thing,  of  every  variety  of  feelings, 
thoughts,  and  actions.  Indeed,  we  see  nothing  spiritually 
and  clearly  right,  unless  our  thought  reaches  to  God's 
qualities,  and  rests  in  a  rational  view  of  His  Nature  and 
Character.  And  in  preparing  the-  mind  for  the  Spiritual 
sense  of  the  Word,  we  cannot  dwell  too  much  upon  this 
point,  nor  become  too  firmly  settled  in  this  divine  idea  of 
the  Oneness  of  this  Trine.  We  need  to  see  that  the 
Elements  are  one  Substance  and  inseparable,  though 
perfectly  distinct ;  that,  without  the  Father,  or  Love  Prin- 
ciple, God  would  have  no  feelings ;  without  the  Son,  or 
Truth  Principle,  He  would  have  no  Knowledge;  and 
without  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  Force  Principle,  He  would 
have  no  power.  They  are  as  essential  to  each  other  as 
are  the  will,  the  understanding,  and  the  energy  of  the 
mind.  And  their  distinct  Trinity  in  Unity  is  well  sym- 
bolized in  the  burning  lamp ;  the  heat  denoting  the 
Father ;  the  light,  the  Son ;  and  the  burning,  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Take  away  the  heat,  and  the  light  and  burning 
cease ;  take  away  the  light,  and  the  heat  and  burning 
cease ;  take  away  the  burning,  and  the  heat  and  light 
cease.  Thus,  each  Element  in  the  Trine  is  necessary  to 
the  existence  of  the  other  two.  And  had  we  a  lamp  too 
bright  and  intense  for  our  eyes,  so  that  we  could  bear 
neither  its  heat,  its  light,  nor  its  force ;  and  should  a 
ground  glass  be  put  around  it,  adapting  its  rays  to  our 


THE   DIVINE  BEING. 

vision,  that  glass  would  faintly  symbolize  the  assumed 
nature,  bringing  the  Lord  down  into  our  sphere  of  life, 
and  thus  adapting  His  Goodness,  His  Truth,  and  His 
Spirit  to  our  states  and  wants.  Here,  then,  we  have  One 
Infinite,  Divine  Being,  with  one  Will,  one  Understanding, 
and  one  Energy.  Thus  "  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord." 
And  well  may  the  first  law  of  God  to  man  be,  "  Thou 
shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  Me."  And  when  we 
rationally  see  that  one  Infinite  Mind  is  All ;  that  It  wills 
all  that  Infinite  Love  can  will,  knows  all  that  Infinite 
Wisdom  can  know,  and  does  all  that  Infinite  Power  can 
do,  and  that  nothing  can  be  added  to  this  Infinite  Mind ; 
that  this  One  Mind  is  spiritual  Substance,  possessing 
three  distinct  Essentials,  one  of  which  is  Infinite  Good- 
ness, making  God  infinitely  Merciful ;  that  another  Essen- 
tial is  Infinite  Truth,  making  Him  Infinitely  Wise  and 
Just,  and  that  the  other  is  Infinite  Power,  making  Him 
Almighty ;  and  that  this  Love  constitutes  the  Will,  this 
Wisdom,  the  Understanding,  and  this  Power,  the  Force  of 
God ;  that  this  Love  embraces  every  possible  variety  of 
goodness,  mercy,  affection,  and  indeed  every  shade  of 
principle  belonging  to  the  department  of  the  Will, 
enabling  Him  to  reach  every  state  of  the  human  heart ; 
and  that  this  Divine  Wisdom  constitutes  every  variety  of 
the  Element  of  Truth,  Justice,  Judgment,  everything 
belonging  to  the  department  of  the  Understanding,  thus 
enabling  Him  to  reach  every  principle  of  human  thought ; 
and  that  this  Divine  Power  includes  everything  whatever 
belonging  to  God's  Energy  and  Might,  enabling  Him  to 
h  and  control  all  the  forces  of  the  universe ;  so  that 
these  three  great  Essentials — Love,  Wisdom,  and  Power 
— embrace  the  whole  vast  Being  of  Jehovah  Himself,  and 
all  His  sphere  of  operations ; — I  say  when  men  soe  this, 


THE   DIVINE   BEING.  29 

they  will  behold  the  eternal  Trinity  of  the  "  One  Only 
Living  and  True  God."  And,  what  more  can  there  be  ? 
One  fills .  all  space ;  where  could  another  be  located  ? 
And  here  we  find  that  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  of  the  New  Testament.  In  His 
Love  we  have  the  Father ;  in  His  Wisdom,  the  Son  ;  and 
in  His  Power,  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  we  see  most  em- 
phatically the  truth  of  the  words  of  the  Lord  in  Isaiah 
xliii,  11 :  "  I,  even  I,  am  Jehovah ;  and  beside  Me  there 
is  no  Saviour."  "  I  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel,  thy  Saviour  "  (xliii,  3).  "  I  am  Jehovah,  .  .  . 
and  there  is  no  God  else  beside  Me ;  a  just  God  and  a 
Saviour;  there  is  none  beside  $Ee.  Look  unto  Me,  and 
be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  for  I  am  God,  and 
there  is  none  else."  (Isa.  xlv,  5,  21,  22.)  "  I  am  Jeho- 
vah thy  God, .  .  .  and  thou  shalt  know  no  God  but  Me ; 
for  there  is  no  Saviour  beside  Me."  (Hosea  xiii,  4.) 
Now,  this  view  of  the  Trinity  rationally  answers  all  that 
is  said,  in  the  Word,  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit. 
We  can  see  that  the  Love  or  Goodness  Element  is  the 
Father  of  the  thoughts  and  actions — the  begetting  prin- 
ciple ;  we  never  act  till  we  desire  to.  Thus  the  Word  or 
Truth  Element  may  be  called  the  Son  of  God  the  Father ; 
for  the  Goodness  of  God  can  give  birth  to  the  Truth,  just 
as  a  tender  father  speaks  it  for  the  instruction  of  his  chil- 
dren. Thus  the  Word,  or  Truth,  that  was  in  the  begin- 
ning with  God  and  was  God,  came  a  Light  into  the 
world,  being  spoken  from  the  Lord's  Love  or  the  Father 
within.  And  the  Holy  Ghost  is  declared  to  be  the 
"  Spirit  of  Truth,"  the  Power  of  God.  Again,  this  same 
God  is  "He  that  appeared  unto  the  prophets."  But, 
what  appeared  ?  Not  the  material  body.  Let  the 
prophets  themselves  answer  many  times  over.  "  The 


30  THE   DIVINE   BEING. 

"Word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me ; "  and  it  came,  "  say- 
ing." What  was  this  Word  but  God's  Truth  or  Son? 
and,  what  spake  it  but  Love  or  the  Father  ?  Again,  it  is 
the  Son  of  God  that  is  declared  to  be  "  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth  ;  "  it  is  He  that  is  coining  to  "judge  the  world," 
and  yet  the  Lord  Himself,  as  a  person,  says,  "  I  judge  no 
man,"  "  my  "Word  judges  you  ;  "  and  again  it  is  written 
(John  v,  22),  "  The  Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  com- 
mitted all  judgment  unto  the  Son ; "  still,  the  Son  says, 
"  He  that  hath  rejected  me,  and  received  not  my  Words, 
hath  One  that  judgeth  him  ;  the  Word  that  I  have 
spoken,  the  same  shall  judge  him  at  the  last  day."  (John 
xii,  48.)  Now,  we  may  all  know  that  God  Himself  is  the 
Judge.  But  God,  being  Love,  must  judge  by  His  Word 
— His  Truth — His  Son ;  and  therefore  His  Son  is  called 
the  Judge ;  and  thus  it  is  that  the  "  Father  hath  com- 
mitted all  judgment  unto  the  Son." 

Again,  the  Son  is  called  the  Mediator  between  man 
and  the  Father ;  and  this  has  been  considered  a  sure  evi- 
dence of  two  separate  and  distinct  Beings.  But  when  we 
look  at  the  Father  as  Divine  Goodness,  we  can  readily  see 
that  His  Word  of  Truth  is  the  only  Mediatorial  Principle 
between  us  and  that  Goodness ;  for  in  order  to  come  to 
God  the  Father,  we  must  become  good,  break  oft  from  sin 
by  righteousness,  and  come  up  into  a  better  state  of  heart. 
Now,  nothing  but  the  Truth,  which  the  Father  gives,  can 
serve  as  a  "  Mediator  to  bring  us  to  God."  The  Truth 
directs  the  way.  It  is  the  Intermediate  Principle  be- 
tween Wickedness  and  Righteousness.  Without  the 
Truth  we  could  have  no  idea  of  Goodness,  nor  could  we 
know  our  evils.  The  truth  is  the  Teacher,  the  School- 
master, the  Mediator,  to  bring  us  to  Goodness — our  Heav- 
enly Father. 


THE  DIVINE  BEING.  31 

But  the  Son  is  also  said  to  be  the  Intercessor  with  the 
Father ;  and  He  is  represented  as  standing  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  and  pleading  with  Him  to  have  mercy  upon 
sinful. men.  And  the  thought  that  the  Son  is  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father,  making  intercession  for  us,  presents 
the  strongest  idea  in  the  letter  of  Scripture  indicative  of 
two  persons,  because  it  seems  to  express  two  minds  ;  but 
as  it  nowhere  says  in  the  Word  that  God  consists  of  more 
persons  than  one,  but,  on  the  contrary,  positively  declares 
that  He  is  but  One  /  that  the  LORD  our  God  is  one  Lord ; 
that  Jehovah  is  the  only  Saviour  and  Redeemer ;  that  the 
Father  and  the  Son  are  one  God,  so  that  the  Son  with 
the  "  Father  that  dwelleth  in '-  Him  could  say,  "  I  am 
the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  Beginning  and  the  End,  the 
First  and  the  Last ; "  and  as  sound  reason  and  true  philos- 
ophy, as  well  as  Scripture,  bear  testimony  to  the  truth 
of  One  Divine  Mind,  and  to  the  impossibility  of  two  In- 
finite Wills,  Understandings,  and  Powers,  we  must  of 
course  seek  for  the  truth  in  some  other  view  of  the  inter- 
cession of  the  Son  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  than 
that  of  two  persons  or  minds  holding  intercourse.  And, 
by  analogy,  we  shall  find  the  true  view  very  plain.  For 
hands,  when  mentioned  in  the  Word,  denote  power.  And 
as  God  the  Father  is  the  Love  Element,  and  God  the  Son 
is  the  Truth  Element,  we  readily  see  that  the  Son  is 
really  the  Eight  Hand  of  the  Father,  or  the  Power  of 
Love.  For  Love  can  do  nothing  without  Wisdom,  the 
•Spirit  of  Truth  being  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Power  of  God. 
Thus  it  is  said  that  God's  "  Right  Hand  and  His  Holy 
Arm  hath  gotten  Him  the  victory."  The  Lord,  as  the 
Word,  is  therefore  the  Right  Hand  of  the  Father — the 
Power  of  God  unto  Salvation. 

What,  then,  is  the  Intercession  ?     Spiritually  viewed, 


32  THE  DIVINE  BEING. 

it  is  the  same  as  Mediation.  It  is  an  intermediate  act. 
Now,  it  is  man  that  is  interceded  with,  man  that  is  pro- 
pitiated or  appeased,  not  the  Unchangeable  God.  And 
Truth  is  the  only  principle  that  can  act  upon  man's  un- 
derstanding and  will,  and  excite  to  nobler  action.  But 
the  truth  of  this  view  of  intercession  may  be  seen  in  the 
popular  idea  of  the  intercession  of  the  Son  with  the  Fa- 
ther, if  men  will  look  at  God  the  Father  as  the  Love  of 
God,  and  at  God  the  Son  as  the  Truth  of  God,  and  at 
God  the  Holy  Ghost  as  the  Power  of  God,  and  all  in  one 
person.  For  illustration :  personify  a  man  as  God — his 
will  or  love  as  the  Father,  his  understanding  or  truth  as 
the  Son,  and  his  energy  or  power  as  the  Holy  Spirit. 
This  man  casts  his  eye  upon  the  water,  and  he  sees  a  boat 
capsize  with  a  child.  Now,  it  is  the  understanding — the 
truth  or  Son  element  of  his  mind — that  sees  the  accident. 
But  no  sooner  is  it  seen  than  the  will — the  Love,  the 
Father  element — is  moved  to  compassion.  Thus  the  Son 
intercedes  with  the  Father,  and  the  Father  and  the  Son 
immediately  rush  to  the  rescue.  This  energy  of  the  two 
Elements  denotes  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Son  Principle 
first  sees  the  accident,  because  the  understanding  is  more 
external  than  the  will,  or  Truth  than  Love  :  Love  is.  the 
centre,  Truth  the  circumference.  The  Son  Element  of 
God  is  therefore  between  the  Father  and  mankind,  and  is 
the  Interceding  or  Mediatorial  Principle. 

But  while  we  are  seeking  a  knowledge  of  the  Divine 
Being  in  the  quality  of  His  Elements  as  taught  in  His 
"Word,  we  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  these  Ele- 
ments are  Divine  Substance  in  Form,  and  that  all  Truths 
in  the  Complex  are  the  Lord  as  the  Word,  who  declares 
that  He  is  THE  TKUTH,  and  that  this  Complex  of  all 


THE   DIVINE   BEING. 


33 


Truths  is  in  Infinite  Human  Form,  and  is  the  Divine 
Humanity  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  being  the  Great 
Jehovah,  in  His  merciful  approach  to  mankind  for  their 
salvation. 


„ 

IUITI7BRSIT7 


CHAPTEE  III. 

THE  NATURE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MAN,  AND  THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 
44  The  serpent  beguiled  me,  and  I  did  eat." — GEN.  in,  13. 

HAVING,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  taken  the  first  step 
toward  preparing  the  mind  for  a  proper  examination  and 
understanding  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  by  seeking  a  true 
view  of  the  qualities  of  the  Divine  Author ;  and  having 
thereby,  from  His  own  Word,  and  the  use  of  the  reason 
with  which  He  has  endowed  us  for  this  purpose,  found  a 
rational  premise  in  the  admission  that  all  His  principles 
and  qualities,  in  their  divine  harmony,  must  be  contained 
in  the  Infinite  Love,  "Wisdom,  and  Power  of  one  Al- 
mighty, Substantial,  and  Unchangeable  Being,  who  de- 
clares Himself  to  be  Goodness  and  Truth,  Spirit  and 
Life  ;  and  yet,  as  there  are  many  things  contained  in  the 
Bible  which  seem  to  be  of  a  different  character,  making 
the  Word  appear  inconsistent,  mysterious,  and  contradic- 
tory, and  therefore,  as  though  these  parts  of  it  must  have 
sprung  from  some  other  source ;  representing  even  God 
Himself  as  sometimes  angry,  wrathful,  and  revengeful, 
and  as  unstable  or  repentant ;  it  therefore  becomes  neces- 
sary, in  order  to  be  well  prepared  .to  examine  understand- 


NATURE   OF  MAN,   AND   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL.  35 

ingly  into  the  true  character  and  teachings  of  this  Divine 
Book,  that  we  next  obtain  a  rational  view  of  what  those 
opposite  principles  and  characters  are,  and  whence  they 
originated.  And  this  investigation  will  lead  to  a  true 
understanding  of  what  man  is,  and  what  part  he  plays  in 
the  drama  of  life ;  what  his  depravity  is,  and  how  he 
received  it.  For,  until  these  questions  are  rationally  (set- 
tled, there  must,  after  all  that  has  been  said  of  the  Lord, 
either  be  a  cloud  of  darkness  still  overshadowing  the 
beauty  and  loveliness  of  the  Divine  Character,  or  else  a 
spirit  of  skepticism  will  be  excited  against  the  Truth  and 
Divine  Authenticity  of  the  Scriptures. 

Now,  in  keeping  the  Great  Divine  Essentials  or  First 
Principles  always  before  us,  as  the  Starting  Point  and 
Grand  Test,  by  which  the  character  and  quality  of  every- 
thing else  are  to  be  tried,  and  its  origin  known ;  and  in 
looking  up  to  those  Principles  for  Light,  and  resting 
upon  them  as  the  "  Eock  of  Ages,"  God  Himself  be- 
comes, in  our  mind,  the  Teacher  and  Judge :  and  thus, 
not  by  our  own  wisdom,  but  in  the  Lord's,  we  may,  in 
our  present  investigation,  obtain  true  ideas  of  the  nature 
and  origin  of  evil,  and  of  the  elements  and  powers  of 
man  ;  and  thence  of  the  reason  why  the  Bible,  in  many 
places,  appears  so  wonderfully  strange  and  hard  to  be  un- 
derstood. And  having  once  obtained  this  desirable  knowl- 
edge, the  way  will  be  fairly  opened  for  a  successful  inves- 
tigation into  the  Spirit  and  Life  of  the  "Word,  and  for 
coming  thereby  to  a  true  understanding  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  and  of  the  cause  of  their  apparent  Mysteries, 
Contradictions,  and  Discrepancies. 

Beginning  then  with  the  view  we  have  taken  of  our 
Heavenly  Father,  as  the  Great  First  Cause,  the  Creator 
of  all  things,  Infinitely  Merciful  and  True,  the  question 


36  NATURE   OF   MAN,    AND   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

which  has  so  much  perplexed  the  religious  world  comes 
up  at  once  fully  before  us,  asking  boldly  and  peremp- 
torily, What  and  Whence  are  Evils  and  Falsities,  Dis- 
cords and  Contentions  f  And  falling  back  upon  the  true 
qualities  of  God  for  answer,  the  decision  is  made  at  once 
and  decisively  that,  whatever  may  have  been  their  origin, 
such  things  cannot  be  the  expressions  of  Goodness  and 
Truth — that  God  does  not  give  forth  evils  and  falsities. 
But  here  an  interrogator  meets  us  with  the  Words  of  God, 
saying,  "  Shall  there  be  evil  in  a  city,  and  the  LORD  hath 
not  done  it  ?  "  (Amos  iii,  6.)  "  I  form  the  light,  and  cre- 
ate darkness :  I  make  peace,  and  create  evil :  I  the  LORD 
do  all  these  things."  (Isa.  xlv,  /T.)  To  this  we  might  an- 
swer that  "  A  good  tree  bringeth  not  forth  corrupt  fruit." 
(Luke  vi,  43.)  But  to  all  such  questions  or  objections  to 
what  we  are  saying  in  this  chapter,  as  may  arise  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader,  coming  from  the  letter  of  the  Word, 
we  here  simply  remark  that  we  are  not  now  explaining 
the  Word,  but  are  trying,  by  the  True  Light  of  God's 
own  Qualities,  which  Light  is  the  Word,  in  its  Spirit,  to 
prepare  our  minds  to  understand  the  nature  and  charac- 
ter of  the  Divine  language,  so  as  to  see  the  true  meaning 
of  all  such  expressions  of  the  Word,  and  of  all  its  appar- 
ent contradictions.  And  we  would  further  remark,  that 
the  letter  of  the  Bible  seems  to  give  a  great  variety  of 
characters  to  God,  and  some  of  them  quite  contradictory, 
though  His  true  character  beams  out  conspicuously 
through  the  whole,  and  that  there  is  a  good  reason  why 
the  Word  was  so  written,  and  that  when  we  clearly  un- 
derstand the  object  of  this  chapter — the  origin  of  evil — 
we  shall  be  better  prepared  to  enter  upon  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  Word  in  these  peculiarities.  Therefore,  all 
inquiries  after  truth,  in  this  chapter,  will  be  answered  by 


NATURE    OF   MAN,    AND   ORIGIN    OF    EVIL.  37 

reasoning  in  the  light  of  First  Principles ;  and  to  such 
answers,  properly  made,  no  rational  objection  can  be 
raised.  Now,  what  we  want  clearly  to  understand  is  the 
difference  between  good  and  evil,  truth  and  falsity,  and 
their  origin.  Some  have  attributed  all  evil  to  a  great 
diabolical  power  or  being,  standing  up  in  opposition  to 
the  Lord.  But  whence  has  any  creature  power,  but  from 
God  ?  He  has  all  power  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  But  is 
God  then  changeable ;  sometimes  kind  and  sometimes 
unkind?  He  is  Unchangeable  Love,  and  His  mercy 
endureth  for  ever.  How,  then,  shall  we  solve  the  dark 
problem?  Is  there  no  such  thing  as  evil  or  wrong? 
Some  have  falsely  said  so  ;  but  who  can  look  around  our 
world,  and  behold  the  murders,  thefts,  deceits,  and  crimes 
of  every  hue,  and  come  to  any  such  conclusions  ? 

Tet  many  at  this  day,  for  the  want  of  a  true  knowl- 
edge of  the  origin  and  nature  of  evil,  are  coolly  declaring 
that  evil  is  only  a  state  of  imperfection ;  that,  God  alone 
being  perfect,  all  other  things  are  necessarily  imperfect, 
because  finite,  and  that  from  this  imperfection  is  all  evil ; 
but  that  God  is  constantly  improving  the  creation,  and 
will  eventually  do  away  with  all  evil  and  misery.  But 
what  are  the  grounds  of  this  conclusion?  Is  Infinite 
Wisdom  becoming  wiser  by  experience  ?  Is  the  sun 
more  bright,  the  rainbow  more  beautiful,  the  diamond 
more  brilliant  now  than  formerly  ?  Does  the  bee  make 
sweeter  honey  or  more  perfect  cells  ;  or  do  the  birds  sing 
more  sweetly  ?  Now,  if  the  lower  orders  of  things  do  not 
improve  by  age  or  generations,  we  cannot  from  thence 
conclude  that  man  does.  Let  us  then  examine  man  him- 
self, and  see  if  he  is  constantly  making  progress  in  good- 
ness. We  know  that  we  are  progressing  in  certain  kinds 
of  science  and  knowledge.  But  are  we  naturally,  from 


38  NATURE   OF   MAN,   AND   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

infancy  to  age,  growing  wiser,  better,  more  honest,  pure, 
and  lovely  ?  All  experience  teaches  to  the  contrary.  If 
we  look  into  our  hearts  we  know  better.  And  if  our 
natural  propensities  do  not  incline  us  upward,  but  down- 
ward, what  becomes  of  the  law  of  progress  in  moral  ex- 
cellence? Strange  progress  upward  that,  of  the  man 
who  commences  life  an  innocent,  confiding  infant,  passes 
through  a  less  artless  but  sportive  childhood,  becomes  a 
licentious  and  deceitful  youth,  an  adulterous  and  revenge- 
ful man,  and  ends  his  career  on  a  murderer's  gallows.  But, 
say  the  advocates  of  moral  progress,  this  is  all  the  fault 
of  society,  not  of.  the  man.  He  was  all  well  enough,  and 
would  have  come  out  all  right  under  other  circumstances. 
But  what  compose  society  but  individuals  ?  And  if  tliey 
are  all  right,  why  is  not  society  right  also  ?  This  taking 
the  blame  off  from  individuals  and  putting  it  on  to  society 
is  strange  reasoning.  Besides,  if  individual  members  of 
society  may  go  downward,  so  may  society. 

There  is  no  philosophy,  however  ingenious,  that  can 
rationally  do  away  with  the  fall  of  man.  The  fact  of 
man's  degeneracy  from  the  laws  of  order  stands  en- 
stamped  upon  the  whole  face  and  conduct  of  the  race. 
Besides,  Infinite  Goodness  and  Truth  cannot  be  charge- 
able with  the  evils,  falsities,  and  miseries  of  mankind. 
For  God  would  have  all  men  to  be  saved  ;  "  not  willing 
that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  re- 
pentance." lie  would  have  them  saved  now,  saved  al- 
ways, saved  everywhere,  from  all  sin  and  suffering.  And 
He  and  His  laws  are  in  effort  to  do  this  always,  to  every- 
body. Evil,  therefore,  springs  not  from  God  nor  from 
His  laws. 

Whence,  then,  is  evil?  It  is  from  man.  What  is 
evil  ?  It  is  a  disposition  to  violate  the  laws  of  life,  and  it 


NATUEE   OF  MAN,   AND   ORIGIN  OF   EVIL.  39 

is  also  the  sufferings  consequent  upon  such  violation. 
There  are  two  kinds,  or  rather  two  degrees  of  life — natu- 
ral and  spiritual.  The  violation  of  the  natural  laws 
brings  physical  evils ;  and  the  violation  of  the  spiritual 
laws,  spiritual  evils.  Thus  all  evils  spring  from  the  vio- 
lation of  these  laws. 

But  can  man  oppose  the  laws  of  Him  who  made  him, 
and  sustains  him,  and  gives  him  all  the  powers  he  has  to 
feel,  think,  and  act  ?  If  man  could  not  do  this  he  could 
not  steal,  nor  lie,  nor  murder ;  for  such  acts  cannot  be 
according  to  the  laws  of  goodness,  and  Goodness  or  God 
forbids  them.  If  man  has  no  power  to  break  the  laws  of 
God,  he  has  no  power  to  keep  them.  And  what  would 
be  the  use  of  laws,  either  of  God  or  man,  for  the  govern- 
ment of  creatures  who  are  ever  impelled  onward  by  a 
force  which  they  can  neither  resist  nor  avert  ?  Who, 
that  has  examined  his  own  heart,  does  not  know  that  he 
is  not  this  blind  machine  ? 

But  how  could  man  originate  evil?  He  could  not 
originate  evil.  Evil  is  not  an  original  thing.  It  is  the 
perversion  of  good.  But  how  could  man  pervert  the  laws 
of  his  being,  when  he  has  no  power  but  from  God  ?  He 
did  not  pervert  the  laws  of  his  being  :  he  acted  from  those 
laws.  Did  the  laws  of  his  being,  then,  make  him  trans- 
gress ?  No  :  the  laws  of  his  being  made  him  free  :  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  because  he  was  free  he  was  obliged 
to  transgress.  Here  is  the  grand  point  which  men  lose 
sight  of.  "What  would  man  be  without  freedom  ?  Would 
he  be  anything  ?  He  certainly  would  not  be  a  man  ;  for 
men  can  make  laws,  and  obey  them  or  disobey  them.  He 
can  reason,  deliberate,  and  choose.  Freedom  is  the  grand 
characteristic  of  his  nature.  Without  it  man  could  not 
reason.  Without  freedom  there  could  be  no  right,  no 


4:0  NATURE  OF   MAN,   AND   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

wrong,  no  responsibility,  no  love,  no  happiness,  no  heav- 
en. What  a  glorious  boon  is  freedom  !  It  gives  us  the 
privilege  of  becoming  good  and  true,  lovely  and  happy. 
It  is  true,  it  gives  us  the  liberty  of  being  disorderly  and 
miserable  ;  for  true  freedom  could  do  no  less  than  this. 

But  how  could  man,  through  the  exercise  of  his  free- 
dom, violate  the  laws  of  life,  unless  there  had  been  given 
him  a  disposition  to  violate  them  ?  On  the  contrary,  how 
could  God  give  to  man  a  disposition  contrary  to  His  own 
laws?  for  His  laws  are  an  expression  of  His  own  will. 
All  the  propensities  which  God  could  give  to  man  must 
be  orderly,  pure,  and  heavenly. 

But  here  we  are  asked  if  we  are  not  to  understand,  by 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  that  there  is  a  being  called 
the  devil,  who  is  the  great  leader  of  men  into  sin,  the 
tempter  to  all  transgression,  the  common  "  Adversary " 
of  souls,  who  was  once  an  angel  of  heaven,  and  was  cast 
out  for  his  wickedness  ?  To  answer  this,  let  us  fall  back 
upon  First  Principles,  and  see  what  they  will  create.  "We 
read  that  in  the  creation  of  all  things  at  "  the  beginning," 
everything  was  good.  There  was  no  devil  created,  no 
hell.  There  was  a  serpent  created  which  "  was  more 
subtle  than  any  beast  of  the  field  which  the  LORD  God 
had  made ; "  but  still  he  was  "  very  good."  And  yet 
this  is  declared  to  be  the  identical  serpent  which  tempted 
Eve.  The  doctrine  of  fallen  angels  has  been  drawn  al- 
most exclusively  from  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Revelation, 
the  result  of  the  war  between  Michael  and  the  dragon. 
But  this  whole  chapter  is  a  beautiful  allegory,  containing 
useful  instruction  to  be  understood  by  the  spiritual  sense 
of  the  "Word,  explained  in  the  following  chapters  of  this 
book. 

It  seems  very  strange  that  men  should  ever  have  sup- 


NATURE  OF  MAN,   AND  ORIGIN  OF   EVIL.  41 

posed  that  the  dragon,  with  seven  heads  and  ten  horns, 
who  was  cast  out  of  heaven  more  than  four  thousand 
years  after  the  fall  took  place,  should  be  the  serpent 
which  tempted  Eve,  when  the  whole  Apocalypse  is  a 
prophecy  of  things  which  were  to  take  place  after  the 
work  was  written.  John  expressly  declares  the  matter 
stated  to  be  things  that  "  must  shortly  come  to  pass." 

The  first  passage  of  Scripture  that  looks  toward  the 
idea  of  a  fallen  angel  was  written  more  than  three  thou- 
sand years  after  the  account  of  the  fall,  and  says,  "  How 
art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O  Lucifer,  son  of  the  morn- 
ing !  how  art  thou  cut  down  to  the  ground.  .  .  .  For 
thou  hast  said  in  thine  heart,  I  will  ascend  into  heav- 
en ;  I  will  be  like  the  Most  High :  yet  thou  shalt  be 
brought  down  to  hell."  (Isa.  xiv,  12, 13, 14, 15.)  But  we 
here  see  that  he  had  never  been  in  heaven,  and  that  he 
fell  because  he  aspired  to  be  equal  to  God.  He  fell  only 
from  his  anticipated  or  imaginary  heaven.  Indeed,  he 
fell  as  Adam  fell,  in  asking  to  be  as  God,  and  as  all  men 
fall  who  become  "  wise  in  their  own  eyes." 

The  next  passage  that  may  be  thought  to  favor  the 
doctrine  of  fallen  angels  is  in  Luke,  where  "  the  seventy 
returned  again  with  joy,  saying,  Lord,  even  the  devils 
are  subject  unto  us  through  thy  name.  And  He  said 
unto  them,  I  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from  heaven" 
(x,  17,  18).  But  the  Lord  then  explains  by  saying,  "  Be- 
hold, I  give  unto  you  power  to  tread  on  serpents  and 
scorpions,  and  over  all  the  power  of  the  enemy : "  thus 
teaching  them  that  the  power  of  Satan,  or  of  false  light, 
falls  from  the  imaginary  heaven  of  men's  minds  as  they 
tread  upon,  or  keep  down,  the  serpents  and  scorpions  of 
the  wicked  heart. 

The  next  and  last  passage  touching  the  subject  is  that 


42  NATURE  OF  MAN,   AND  OKIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

of  Paul  to  the  Corinthians  :  "  Satan  himself  is  transformed 
into  an  angel  of  light."  (2  Cor.  xi,  14.)  This  is  the  only 
passage  in  the  Bible  where  the  devil  is  called  an  angel, 
'  and  here  it  is  said  to  be  by  transformation,  and  is  not  his 
real  character. 

"We  have  now  mentioned  all  that  the  Bible  says,  in 
the  literal  sense,  upon  the  subject  of  fallen  angels,  or  of 
the  origin  of  evil ;  •  and  it  fails  to  produce  the  least  evi- 
dence that  an  angel  of  the  heavenly  abode  ever  fell  and 
became  a  devil  on  the  earth. 

Milton's  PARADISE  LOST,  and  not  the  Word  of  God,  is 
what  has  impressed  men  with  the  idea  of  the  devil  as  a 
fallen  angel.  The  lively  imagination  of  Milton  has  paint- 
ed the  picture  in  glowing  colors ;  and  it  leaves  a  deep 
impression  on  the  minds  of  religious  people  who  love  to 
read  it.  But  had  Milton  had  the  spiritual  sense  of  the 
Scriptures,  he  would  have  painted  a  very  different  pic- 
ture. And  in  the  subsequent  part  of  this  book  we  shall 
give  the  true  spiritual  view  of  the  fall.  "We  can  here 
only  treat  of  it  in  the  light  of  natural  deductions  drawn 
from  First  Principles. 

"What,  then,  are  we  to  understand  by  the  phrase,  "  the 
devil"?  The  most  correct  brief  definition  that  can  be 
given  to  that  phrase  is,  the  love  of  evil.  The  fall  of  man 
gradually  engendered  the  love  of  self;  and  as  this  love 
increased,  the  love  of  God  diminished,  till  man  loved  him- 
self supremely.  This  self-love  led  him  into  covetousness, 
deceit,  theft,  murder,  and  all  crimes,  for  the  sake  of  self, 
which  filled  him  with  the  love  of  evil,  or  with  the  devil. 
This  love  of  evil,  therefore,  did  not  exist  before  the  fall ; 
consequently  there  was  no  devil.  How  could  there  be  a 
lovo  of  evil,  when  there  was  no  evil  to  love  and  no  desire 
to  love  it  ?  Evil  and  the  love  of  evil  are,  therefore,  in 


NATURE  OF  MAN,   AND  ORIGIN   OF  EVIL.  43 

their  essence,  inseparable,  and  came  into  existence  to- 
gether. They  are  perverted  states  and  principles  of  the 
human  heart. 

Now  it  is  certain  this  devil  is  not  of  God's  creating. 
A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit.  And  surely 
there  cannot  be  a  self-existent,  uncreated  Devil,  for  such 
a  being  would  be  Infinite,  and  we  should  then  have  two 
Infinites,  a  good  one  and  a  bad  one  (which  is  most  absurd 
and  impossible),  neither  of  whom  could  conquer  the  other ; 
whereas  the  Saviour  did  conquer  death,  hell,  and  the 
devil ;  and  offers  men  the  power,  in  His  Holy  Spirit,  to 
do  the  same. 

The  devil,  then,  is  the  love  of  evil  in  the  complex. 
Every  person  whose  ruling  love  is  the  love  of  evil  is  a 
devil.  Thus  the  •  Lord  called  Judas  a  devil.  Now  the 
head  of  "  that  old  serpent  the  devil "  is,  the  love  of  self. 
This  love  of  self  is  the  serpent's  head  which  the  Lord 
came  to  bruise,  as  will  hereafter  be  seen  from  the  spirit- 
ual sense. 

Evil,  then,  is  not  an  original  thing  :  it  is  a  perversion 
of  good,  a  depraved  love  and  its  consequences,  brought 
about  by  habit  and  cultivation,  through  the  abuse  of  the 
good  principles  given  us.  God  implanted  no  desire  for 
evil,  no  taste  or  relish  for  it,  in  the  human  heart.  Indeed, 
He  could  not,  for  it  is  contrary  to  His  nature.  He  could 
not  give  what  He  did  not  possess  Himself. 

God  gave  to  man  three  things  to  be  kept  inviolate  as 
his  own.  These  three  things  are  what  distinguish  him 
from  the  brutes,  unite  him  with  his  God,  and  thereby 
give  him  perpetual  existence,  and  make  him  capable  of 
becoming  either  an  angel  or  an  evil  spirit.  These  three 
things  constitute  what  may  be  called  man's  selfhood /  for 
they  give  him  individuality  and  elevate  him  above  ma- 


44:  NATURE  OF   MAN,   AND   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

chinery.  These  three  important  endowments  are  Free- 
dom, Rationality,  and  Desire  f 01*  knowledge — reason  to 
determine,  freedom  to  act,  and  curiosity  to  know.  With- 
out these  endowments,  man  could  never  be  elevated 
above  the  beasts  that  perish.  "With  them,  he  is  a  free, 
rational,  and  progressive  being.  These  three  endow- 
ments, as  given  by  God,  are  all  right.  And  though,  from 
the  very  nature  of  these  endowments,  man  may  abuse 
them  and  become  depraved,  yet  they  are  positive  necessi- 
ties of  his  being.  And  the  possibility  of  abusing  them 
and  falling  into  evil  exists  in  the  possibility  of  using  them 
and  rising  into  heavenly  knowledge  and  happiness.  In 
the  freedom  and  ability  to  do  right  are  necessarily  involved 
the  freedom  and  ability  to  do  wrong.  Bat  no  man,  in 
the  exercise  of  the  freedom  which  God  has  given  him,  is 
obliged  to  do  what  he  knows  to  be  wrong.  In  the  truth, 
by  which  he  sees  the  wrong,  God  gives  him  the  power  to 
resist  the  temptation  and  do  right,  if  he  will  look  to  the 
Lord  and  make  the  effort  which  he  is  free  to  do.  Thus 
everything  necessary  for  man's  salvation  is  carefully  pro- 
vided by  the  Lord. 

Man  was  not  obliged  to  fall.  God  did  not  desire  him 
to  fall,  for  He  commanded  him  not  to  eat  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  evil ;  or,  in  other  words,  not  to  know  evil  and 
make  it  his  good,  by  practising  it,  and  thus  appropriating 
it  to  his  affections.  God  told  him  that  if  he  did  eat  of  it 
he  would  surely  die.  The  forbidden  fruit  was  the  same 
that  is  now  forbidden  in  the  Decalogue. 

Nor  did  man  intend  to  fall.  He  could  not  have  had 
any  such  desire  at  first,  for  it  would  have  been  evil. 
Therefore,  the  fall  must  have  been  imperceptibly  slow  at 
first.  Man,  in  the  exercise  of  his  curiosity  to  know  new 
things,  gradually  overreached  the  true  line  of  virtue  and 


AND  OKIGIN  OF   EVIL.  45 

justice,  in  suck  slight  degrees  as  not  to  be  aware  that  he 
was  really  diverging  from  the  course  of  truth  and  right- 
eousness. He  was  young  and  ambitious,  with  everything 
to  learn,  and  a  desire  to  know  everything :  with  no  his- 
toric paths  or  beaten  tracks  of  life  before  him ;  no  sym- 
bols of  vice  to  warn  him  of  his  danger,  nor  examples  of 
depravity  to  show  him  his  faults.  Thus  he  went  on, 
gradually  falling  from  the  love  of  good  to  the  love 
of  evil. 

This  fall  may  be  illustrated  in  many  ways.  A  man, 
ignorant  of  the  quality  of  the  poppy,  while  examining, 
tasting,  and  testing  its  medicinal  properties,  and  its  influ- 
ence upon  the  human  system,  may  gradually  obtain,  by 
habit,  an  artificial  relish  for  it  which  God  did  not  give 
him,  and,  following  up  the  growing  demands  of  a  disor- 
dered appetite,  he  eventually  destroys  his  physical  exist- 
ence by  it :  and  so  of  antimony  and  alcohol.  Thus,  with- 
out any  relish  implanted  in  his  nature  for  these  poisons, 
he  by  habit  obtains  a  love  for  what  is  destructive  of 
physical  order  and  happiness.  Precisely  so  could  the 
people  of  the  primeval  age,  without  any  inherent  tenden- 
cies to  evil,  obtain  a  love  for  that  which  is  destructive  of 
spiritual  order  and  happiness.  For  illustration  :  the  ine- 
briate is  out  of  alcohol :  the  voracious  appetite  loudly 
demands  it.  The  love  of  self  and  self-gratification — the 
very  head  of  the  serpent — is  determined  to  have  it  at  any 
cost.  But  the  circumstances  are  such  that  it  cannot  be 
obtained  without  stealing  it.  The  better  judgment  sees 
the  injustice  of  the  theft ;  but  the  serpent's  demands  are 
imperious,  and  the  judgment  finally  yields ;  and  the  Di- 
vine command  is  broken — the  soul  has  eaten  of  the  for- 
bidden fruit.  And  the  next  time  it  will  be  broken  more 
easily.  Thus  he  yields  to  the  bite  of  the  serpent,  whose 


46  NATURE  OF   MAN,    AND   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

tooth  lie  had  poisoned  by  his  own  indulgence,  in  permit- 
ting it  to  run  wild  when  he  might  have  controlled  it. 

Thus  the  love  of  evil,  brought  on  by  gradually  vitiat- 
ing the  orderly  demands  of  mind  and  body,  is  that  old 
serpent  the  Devil,  who  "  as  a  roaring  lion  walketh  about, 
seeking  whom  he  may  devour."  And  is  not  this  the 
great  enemy  of  mankind  ?  What  evil  or  crime  was  ever 
committed  that  this  devil  did  not  do  ?  Look  at  the 
wretch  in  human  form,  with  this  devil  in  the  midst  of  his 
depraved  and  morbid  appetites  of  soul  and  body  !  What 
else  have  we  so  much  to  fear  ?  His  hand  is  pollution  to 
everything  hetouches. 

These  serpents  of  the  human  heart  are  the  evils  to 
which  the  Saviour  alludes  when  He  says  He  will  give 
His  disciples  "  power  to  tread  on  serpents  and  scorpions, 
and  over  all  the  power  of  the  enemy."  They  had  no 
more  power  over  the  snakes  of  the  earth  than  other  peo- 
ple. But  over  the  serpent  of  the  mind  they  had  power 
from  the  Lord.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians  says,  'I  fear, 
lest,  ...  as  the  serpent  beguiled  Eve  through  his 
subtlety,  so  your  minds  should  be  corrupted  from  the 
simplicity  that  is  in  Christ."  Here  Paul  is  afraid  that 
the  minds  of  his  disciples  will  be  corrupted  as  the  serpent 
beguiled  Eve,  or  in  the  same  way  that  she  was  beguiled. 
This  is  proof  positive  that  Paul  did  not  suppose  that  any 
natural  serpent  tempted  Eve.  For  it  .cannot  be  believed 
that  Paul  was  afraid  that  the  snakes  of  this  earth  would 
lead  his  disciples  into  sin.  No :  it  was  their  sinful  de- 
sires to  gratify  the  wayward  demands  of  the  heart,  that 
Paul  was  afraid  of. 

Thus,  immediately  after  the  fall,  the  Saviour  was 
promised  to  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  or  the  love  of  self. 
This  work  was  the  great  object  of  His  mission.  It  is  no- 


NATURE   OF  MAN,   AND   OEIGIN   OF  EVIL.  47 

where  recorded  that  lie  killed  a  snake.  "When  He  came 
in  the  flesh  the  kingdom  of  Satan,  or  of  the  serpent,  ruled 
on  earth.  Christ  came  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil 
in  the  human  heart,  and  establish  His  own  kingdom 
there.  When  the  serpent  rules,  the  whole  mind  is  in  dis- 
order. When  Christ  rules,  all  is  happiness  and  peace. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ACTION  AND  REACTION :  OR,  GOOD  AND  ITS  REWARDS ;  EVIL  AND 
ITS  CONSEQUENCES. 

THE  Lord,  in  His  Word,  says  to  us,  "  Judge  not,  that  ye 
be  not  judged.  For  with  what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall 
be  judged:  and  with  what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be 
measured  to  you  again."  (Matt,  vii,  1,  2.)  He  says, 
"  give,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you : "  that  according 
to  what  we  sow  we  shall  reap :  thaf  u  the  soul  that  sin- 
neth,  it  shall  die : "  that  "  the  righteousness  of  the 
righteous  shall  be  upon  him,  and  the  wickedness  of  the 
wicked  shall  be  upon  him."  (Ezek.  xviii,  20.) 

The  spirit  and  life  of  these  passages  bring  before  us  an 
eternal  law,  which  is  as  reliable  and  certain,  in  spiritual 
things,  as  that  of  action  and  reaction  is,  in  natural  things. 
We  know  that  the  earth  bears  as  hard  against  the  man 
who  stands  upon  it,  as  he  does  against  the  earth,  and  by 
this  means  he  can  walk.  And  this  is  but  a  natural  illus- 
tration of  a  higher  law  which  appertains  to  spiritual  things 
with  equal  certainty.  And  while  this  law,  in  the  natural 
plane,  pervades  the  universe  of  matter ;  and  no  machinery 
could  move,  and  nothing  could  exist  without  it ;  so,  in  the 
spiritual  plane,  it  pervades  the  universe  of  mind,  and 


ACTION   AND   REACTION.  49 

nothing  could  move,  or  exist,  without  it.  And  a  proper 
understanding  of  this  law  will  throw  much  light  into  our 
minds,  from  the  Holy  Word,  and  enable  us  the  more 
readily  to  understand  the  divine  teaching  and  the  laws  of 
our  spiritual  existence. 

Now,  it  is  a  sure  law  of  our  being  that  whatsoever 
we  do  to  another,  spiritually,  that  is,  as  to  our  will  and 
design  toward  him,  whether  it  be  intended  for  his  good  or 
his  evil,  must,  as  a  matter  of  course,  affect  us  for  good  or 
for  evil.  We  must  receive  back  upon  our  souls  an  im- 
pression of  the  same  quality  and  force  as  that  we  intended 
to  give.  And  if  men  truly  saw  and  felt  the  consequences 
of  breaking  this  law,  as  sensibly  as  they  do  that  of  the 
physical  law,  by  the  pain  they  feel  when  they  burn  their 
fingers,  they  would  be  very  careful  how  they  desire,  or 
perform,  anything  but  good  to  others.  And  when  this 
great  law,  for  the  regulation  of  all  minds,  is  properly  felt 
and  acknowledged,  by  the  human  race,  the  world  will 
come  into  order. 

It  would  seem  that  it  ought  to  have  been  thus  felt  and 
acknowledged  ere  this  :  for  it  is,  in  reality,  the  basis  of  all 
law,  civil  and  religious.  And,  in  the  ignorant  ages  of  the 
world,  God  suffered  the  law  of  receiving  according  to  what 
we  give,  to  be  carried  out  in  ultimates,  in  physical  retalia- 
tions, to  the  very  letter.  Thus,  the  command  to  the  Jews 
was,  "  Life  for  life,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for 
hand,  foot  for  foot,  burning  for  burning,  wound  for  wound, 
plague  for  plague,  stripe  for  stripe."  And  these  laws  were 
rigidly  observed  and  enforced.  Whatsoever  a  man  did  to 
another  was  done  to  him  in  return.  This  law  was  car- 
ried into  all  the  departments  of  life,  civil  and  religious. 
If  a  witness  testified  falsely  against  a  man,  the  command 
was,  "  Ye  shall  do  unto  him  as  he  sought  to  do  unto  his 
3 


50  ACTION   AND   REACTION. 

brother."  If  the  false  testimony  would  have  convicted 
the  brother  of  a  crime  deserving  death,  then  the  witness 
was  to  be  put  to  death. 

The  Jews  had  a  great  variety  of  these  retaliatory  laws. 
Why  did  God  give  such  laws  ?  Because  they  sprang 
from  the  great  principle  that  whatsoever  measure  men 
mete  to  others,  spiritually,  or  as  to  will  or  intention,  must 
be  measured  to  them  again — must  come  upon  their  souls. 
The  Jewish  law  was,  therefore,  an  exemplification,  in  the 
letter,  of  the  truth  of  a  spiritual  law.  God  desired  thus 
emphatically  to  teach  it,  in  His  Holy  Word,  and  to  that 
people  as  best  for  their  good  ;  and,  also,  that  future  ages 
of  the  world  might  thereby  learn  to  see,  and  regard  it  in 
the  spirit.  But  in  the  New  Testament  the  law,  in  the 
fetter,  is  not  enforced. 

We  may  now  will  to  our  enemies  physical  punish- 
ments, and  inflict  them,  without  being  obliged,  by  the 
civil  law,  to  receive  the  same  corporal  sufferings.  But  if 
we  do  not  inflict  it  on  them  for  their  soul's  good,  or  for 
the  good  of  mankind,  and  do  it,  not  in  a  spirit  of  kind- 
ness, but  with  a  revengeful  spirit,  to  torment  them,  our 
own  soul  must  reap  its  bitter  reward. 

Now,  although  the  law  is  a  spiritual  law,  and  is  there- 
fore positive  and  sure,  yet  the  Jews  were  so  low  that  they 
could  see  it  only  in  the  letter,  and  to  reach  their  states  it 
was  recorded  in  the  letter.  And,  to  persons  in  their 
sensual  and  depraved  condition,  it  was  a  wholesome  law, 
even  in  the  letter,  and  served  rather  to  elevate  than  to 
lower  them.  For  the  prompt  and  sure  execution  of  the 
penalty  impressed  them  with  a  sense  of  the  vileness  of  the 
crime ;  and  restrained  them  from  a  thousand  wicked  in- 
dulgences, and  held  them  in  the  fear  of  God's  power,  and 
in  respect  to  His  Law. 


ACTION   AND   REACTION.  51 

Now,  the  law  of  the  New  Testament,  commanding  us 
to  do  unto  others  as  we  would  that  they  should  do  unto 
us,  and  "assuring  us  that  the  measure  we  mete  to  others 
will  be  measured  to  us  again,  is  only  another  form  of  the 
retaliatory  law  of  the  Jews.  The  spiritual  import  of  both 
is  the  same :  one  is  suited  to  one  dispensation,  and  the 
other  to  another. 

But,  as  people  see  that  the  law,  under  the  Christian 
dispensation,  is  not  carried  out,  in  the  letter  :  that  men  do 
not  receive,  upon  their  bodies,  the  measure  they  mete  to 
others  ;  many  have  settled  down  in  the  belief  that  the  law 
means  nothing  ;  or,  at  most,  its  penalty  is  a  very  doubtful 
matter,  and  but  little  to  be  feared.  Such  minds  can  only 
be  reached  by  a  conscious  certainty  of  the  spiritual  sense, 
through  a  rational  view  of  the  law  itself.  But  men  will 
yet  see  that  the  law,  whereby  the  souls  of  men,  in  their 
intentions  and  purposes,  must  receive  back  the  measure 
they  mete  to  others,  is  as  certain  as  that  God  liveth. 

Upon  this  eternal  law  rest  the  safety  of  the  spiritual 
world  and  the  order  and  harmony  of  the  universe.  It  is 
the  golden  rule  of  the  Gospel,  the  spirit  of  the  whole 
Divine  code,  the  essence  of  the  two  great  commandments, 
and  the  foundation  of  all  wholesome,  civil  laws. 

And  there  is  no  mitigating  or  averting  it  in  the  least. 
Nor  is  there  any  possibility  of  transferring  the  penalty 
from  one  person  to  another  ;  for  it  comes  as  the  legitimate 
effect  of  a  cause ;  not  solely,  as  a  command  of  God.  It 
would  come  if  God  had  not  said  so.  The  written  laws  of 
God  are  only  expressions  of  Eternal  Principles  which  exist 
in  the  very  nature  of  things.  The  "Written  Law  does  not 
bring  the  penalty  ;  nor  does  God.  It  is  the  violation  of 
the  Law.  Man,  by  violating  the  Law  of  love  to  God  and 
the  neighbor,  brings  upon  his  own  soul  the  same  measure 


52  ACTION    AND   REACTION. 

he  metes.     And  upon  his  soul,  and  no  other,  can  it  possi- 
bly fall.     "  The  soul  that  sinneth  IT  shall  die." 

Now,  what  is  this  death  ?  It  is  the  loss  of  some  love 
of  i-ight :  and  the  death  extends  just  to  the  degree  of  the 
loss.  For  the  love  of  right,  or  love  of  good,  is  life :  the 
loss  of  it  is  death.  What  is  the  effect  of  this  death? 
Unhappiness.  What  occasions  the  unhappiness?  It  is 
the  want  of  harmony  with  the  laws  of  happiness,  or  of 
love  to  God  and  the  neighbor.  What  inflicts  this  misery  ? 
The  condition  of  the  sinner.  Does  God  or  His  Law  con- 
demn him  ?  No  :  "  this  is  the  condemnation,  that  light 
has  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness  rather 
than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil."  Does  God 
want  him  to  remain  dead  ?  No  :  He  invites  him  back 
in  the  tenderest  manner ;  and  pleads  with  him,  and  en- 
treats him  to  return,  with  all  the  compassion  of  a  Father 
for  a  child.  He  assures  him  that  "when  the  wicked 
man  turneth  away  from  his  wickedness  .  .  .  and  doeth 
that  which  is  lawful  and  right,  he  shall  save  his  soul 
alive."  (Ezek.  xviii,  27.)  Is  the  Law  opposed  to  his 
coming  ?  No :  it  is  given  on  purpose  to  show  him  the 
way  back.  "  The  Law  of  the  LORD  is  perfect,  converting 
the  soul.  (Ps.  xix,  7.)  He  has  placed  himself  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Law  ;  but  the  Law  is  still  his  friend,  ready  to 
receive  him  with  open  arms.  What  then  are  God's  de- 
sires toward  the  sinner?  That  he  should  be  happy, 
"  Have  I  any  pleasure  at  all  that  the  wicked  should  die  ? 
saith  the  Lord  God  ;  and  not  that  he  should  return  from 
his  ways,  and  live  ? "  (Ezek.  xviii,  23.)  What  will  give 
man  that  happiness?  A  return  to  harmony  with  the 
Law.  What  obstacle  is  there  in  the  way  of  his  return  ( 
INonc  but  the  sinner's  own  indispostion.  "  Whosoever 
will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely."  Is  he  free  to 


ACTION   AND   REACTION.  5<3 

return  ?  Yes  ;  and  lias  the  power  constantly  extended  to 
him.  to  do  so.  "  Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  for  why  will  ye  die." 
How  is  this  return  to  be  made  ?  By  repenting  of  his  feel- 
ings of  opposition  to  the  Law ;  faith  in  the  Lord  and  in 
the  truth  which  shows  him  his  evils  and  the  way  back  ;  and 
faithful  and  prayerful  obedience  to  that  truth  till  he  loves 
the  Law,  and  God,  and  his  neighbor.  Then  he  is  happy. 

But,  here  we  are  told  that  we  are  at  variance  with  the 
doctrine,  that  Christ  suffered  the  penalty  of  the  sins  of 
men  in  their  stead.  We  answer  that  we  have  not  written 
this  book  in  any  spirit  of  religious  controversy,  but  simply 
to  speak  the  irrefutable  teachings  of  the  Holy  Word  in  all 
that  we  say ;  and  we  now  speak  understandingly  when  we 
say  that  Christ,  in  His  coming,  changed  no  Divine  Law  : 
that  He  came  not  to  destroy  the  Law,  but  to  fulfil ;  and 
that  there  is  nothing  in  the  Holy  Word  that  teaches  that 
God  ever  affixed  any  penalty  to  sin  that  could  not  be  re- 
mitted by  the  shiner's  breaking  off  from  it  by  righteous- 
ness ;  nor  is  it  anywhere  taught  that  the  Saviour  suffered 
the  penalty  of  man's  sins,  or  even  that  God  forgives  them. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  decidedly  and  universally  taught 
that  men  must  suffer  the  penalty  of  their  sins.  Thus  it  is 
written  in  Jer.  xiv,  14,  "  I  will  recompense  them  ac- 
cording to  their  deeds  ; "  in  Luke  xxiii,  41,  "We  receive 
the  reward  of  our  deeds ; "  in  Rom.  ii,  6-11,  "  God  will 
render  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds/'  "  for  there 
is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God ; "  in  Ps.  Ixii,  12, 
"  Thou  render est  to  every  man  according  to  his  works ; 
and  in  Rev.  xx,  12,  13,  concerning  the  final  judgment, 
when  the  books  of  men's  lives  were  opened,  it  is  declared 
that  "  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  that  were 
written  in  the  books,  according  to  their  works." 

The  fact  is,  we  have  grown  up  from  childhood  under 


54r  ACTION   AND  EEACTION. 

the  idea  that  forgiveness  of  sins  is  the  relinquishment 
of  punishment.  And  it  is  hard  for  men  to  see  that 
the  removal  of  evil  dispositions  is  the  only  remission 
of  sins. 

There  is  much  said,  in  the  Word,  about  the  forgiveness 
of  sins,  but  the  penalty  is  another  thing.  Sins  are  the 
evils  of  -the  will.  Their  action  brings  forward  the  penal- 
ty ;  these  evil  loves  or  sins  may  be  remitted,  by  the  Lord, 
through  faith  and  repentance,  and  the  resisting  of  tempta- 
tions, till  we  obtain  good  loves.  And  when  these  sins  or 
evils  are  removed,  the  penalty  is  gone.  The  sin,  or  evil 
in  the  soul,  is  the  cause  of  the  penalty  or  unhappiness, 
and  therefore  the  penalty  must  stand  against  a  man  till 
the  cause  is  removed.  God  neither  inflicts  nor  remits  the 
penalties  of  transgression.  They  are  the  sure  effects  of 
man's  sins.  He  remits  the  sins  when  men  repent  of  them 
and  forsake  them. 

Then,  as  God  does  not  forgive  the  penalty  of  man's 
sins,  but  the  transgressor  bears  it,  the  Lord  could  not 
suffer  it.  But,  we  should  not,  on  this  account,  undervalue 
the  great  work  of  Redemption.  We  owe  everything  to 
the  Lord  for  what  He  then  did  for  us.  We  were  sinners 
in  a  lost  and  most  miserable  and  hopeless  condition.  And 
the  Merciful  Lord  wanted  to  save  us.  The  event,  there- 
fore, is  just  as  important  to  us,  as  though  He  had  actually 
suffered  the  penalty  of  our  sins.  It  provides  a  rational 
and  consistent  way  for  our  salvation :  and  all  was  done 
gratuitously  and  in  pure  mercy,  for  us.  It  is  therefore 
recorded  that  He  died  for  us.  But,  what  died  ?  Every 
propensity  of  His  nature  that  could  be  tempted — every 
tendency  toward  self-love.  He  crucified  them  in  His  as- 
sumed nature,  that  He  might  be  able  to  reach  us  and  dis- 
pose us,  in  His  Spirit,  to  crucify  them  in  our  nature. 


ACTION   AND  REACTION.  55 

It  is  also  said  that  ~by  His  strides  we  are  healed.  That 
is,  by  His  stripes  He  was  made  perfect ;  and  His  Spirit 
was  thereby  brought  to  our  aid,  so  that  we  might  be  healed 
of  our  sins,  by  following  Him.  We  are  taught  that  He 
was  made  perfect  through  suffering.  And  in  Luke,  it  is 
written,  "  Ought  not  Christ  to  have  suffered  these  things 
and  to  enter  into  His  glory." 

Again  we  are  taught  that  He  became  sin  for  us  ;  and 
that  He  lore  our  sins.  That  is,  He  assumed  our  sinful 
nature,  and  thus  bore  our  sins,  or  the  sins  of  the  world,  in 
their  tendencies,  but  not  in  actuality.  He  never  sinned. 
And  He  would  now  aid  us  to  bear  our  sins  as  He  did 
without  sinning ;  and  also  to  resist  them  in  His  spirit,  and 
thus  to  follow  Him  in  the  regeneration. 

Again,  He  was  a  Propitiation  for  our  sins.  Now,  a 
propitiation  is  a  reconciliation.  He  took  our  fallen  and 
unreconciled  nature,  and  propitiated,  atoned,  or  reconciled 
it  to  the  Divine  nature.  And  He  became  that  propitia- 
tion for  our  sins,  or  because  we  had  sins,  and  He  wanted 
us  to  become  propitiated,  or  reconciled  to  God,  through 
His  spirit,  by  forsaking  those  sins. 

Now,  it  has  been  supposed  that  the  acts  of  the  Lord, 
here  mentioned,  had  reference  to  tl\Q  penalty  of  man's  sins ; 
but  that  is  a  mistake.  It  does  not  say  that  He  died  for 
the  penalty  of  our  sins  ;  or  that  He  bore  the  penalty  ;  or 
that  the  penalty  is  removed  by  His  stripes ;  or  that  He 
was  a  propitiation  for  the  penalty.  Indeed  the  penalty  is 
nowhere  alluded  to  in  the  whole  Scripture,  but  as  some- 
thing that  the  sinner  himself  must  bear. 

Much  is  said  of  what  Christ  has  done  for  the  sins  of 
the  world,  and  for  the  forgiveness  and  remission  of  these 
sins.  But  the  forgiveness  of  the  penalty  is  in  no  instance 
alluded  to,  but  plainly  denied.  "  The  righteousness  of 


56  ACTION   AND   REACTION. 

the  righteous  shall  be  upon  him,  and  the  wickedness  of 
the  wicked  shall  be  upon  him." 

It  has  been  supposed,  by  some,  that  the  Lord  has 
changed  this  great  law  of  receiving  according  to  the  mea- 
sure we  mete,  because  He  says  in  Matthew,  "  Ye  have 
heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  an  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a 
tooth  for  a  tooth ;  but  I  say  unto  you  that  ye  resist  not 
evil."  But  what  rational  mind  cannot  see  that  an  Infinite 
Law  cannot  be  changed  ?  God's  laws  are  the  expressions 
of  His  own  immutable  Will  and  Wisdom. 

By  the  words  above,  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
we  may  readily  see  that  the  punishment  for  sin  never 
comes  from  God.  God,  and  angels,  and  all  good  men  are 
kind  toward  the  good  and  the  bad.  Evil  intentions  bring 
upon  the  soul  its  own  disordered  state,  and  consequently 
its  nnhappiness ;  and  when  carried  out  they  often  bring 
the  corporal  punishments  of  the  civil  law  upon  man. 

Now  we  repeat,  that  the  law  by  which  we  receive 
back  the  measure  we  mete  to  others,  is  as  essential  to  our 
spiritual  being,  as  is  the  law  of  action  and  reaction  to  our 
natural  being.  Indeed,  we  see  no  other  way  that  evil 
could  be  restrained,  or  the  order  of  the  spiritual  uni- 
verse preserved.  It  is  therefore  a  great  blessing  that  we 
suffer  the  penalty  of  the  violated  Law.  Take  away  the 
penalty  of  the  civil  law,  and  how  soon  the  world  would  go 
to  destruction.  Take  away  the  pain  we  feel  at  the  viola- 
tion of  the  physical  law,  and  children  would  cut  off  their 
lingers,  and  put  out  their  eyes,  and  be  crushed  to  pieces 
by  carelessness.  It  is  the  great  law  for  the  preservation 
of  physical  life  ;  and  the  spiritual  law  of  receiving  accord- 
ing to  what  we  give,  would  be  equally  preservative,  if  it 
were  as  well  understood  and  felt. 

1 1  o w  promptly  does  the  rope  walker  watch  and  obey 


ACTION   AND   BEACTION.  57 

the  mechanical  law  of  action  and  reaction,  that  his  whole 
weight  may  act  against  the  rope ;  lest  he  suffer  the  conse- 
quences of  the  violated  law  by  the  reaction  of  the  solid 
earth,  by  a  concussion. 

Now  man  is  made  rational  and  free  that  he  may  obey, 
or  disobey,  this  great  Law,  either  in  its  mental  or  physical 
operations.  We  know  the  consequences  of  breaking  the 
law,  physically.  "Would  to  God  we  were  as  sensible  of 
what  would  follow  the  spiritual  violation  ;  that  of  love  to 
God  and  the  neighbor.  Then  would  man  turn  from  his 
evil  way  and  live. 

"We  brace  ourselves  against  the  wind,  making  our 
reaction  just  equal  to  the  force,  that  we  be  not  blown 
away.  So,  -we  may  spiritually  resist  the  current  of  temp- 
tation which  besets  us,  that  we  be  not  swept  away  by  a 
torrent  of  vice.  "  The  Stone  which  the  builders  rejected, 
the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the  corner :  this  is  the 
Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes  :  and  who- 
soever shall  fall  on  this  Stone  shall  be  broken :  but  on 
whomsoever  It  shall  fall,  It  will  grind  him  to  powder." 
(Matt,  xxi,  42,  44.) 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  DIVINE  INFLUX. 

IN  order  to  prepare  the  mind  to  receive  the  ideas  ex- 
pressed in  the  next  chapter,  upon  GOD  AND  CREATION,  or 
Cause  and  Effect,  we  here  interpose  a  few  thoughts  on 
the  Law  of  Influent  Life,  as  a  supplement  to  Chapter  III, 
and  an  introduction  to  Chapter  YI. 

If  the  premises,  as  to  the  Divine  qualities,  laid  down 
in  the  second  chapter,  be  true,  the  conclusions  to  which 
we  have  arrived  in  the  third  and  fourth  chapters,  as  to 
the  nature  and  character  of  man,  and  of  evil  and  its 
origin,  as  well  as  the  law  of  Action  and  Reaction,  must 
also  be  true.  For  the  premises  being  true,  this  sequence 
must  follow.  Any  argument,  therefore,  that  may  be 
offered  against  the  view  we  have  taken  of  the  fall,  or 
against  anything  we  may  say  in  this  book,  will  be  made 
against  the  First  and  Eternal  Principles  laid  down  for  our 
guidance  in  the  first  chapter.  For  on  them  we  rest,  and 
from  them  and  what  they  teach,  we  shall  draw  all  our  con- 
clusions as  to  what  is  right  or  wrong,  good  or  evil. 

Now,  we  are  taught  by  those  principles  that  the  Lord 
is  THE  LITE  (John  xi,  25) ;  that  He  is  THE  FOUNTAIN  OF 
LIFE  (Ps.  xxxvi,  9) ;  and  that  He  giveth  Life  to  the  World 


THE   DIVINE   INFLUX.  59 

(John  vi,  33) ;  that  He  giveth  Life  to  all  (Acts  xvii,  25) ; 
that  this  Life  is  spiritual  and  eternal  substance ;  and  that 
even  the  words  that  He  speaks  are  this  very  life.  (John 
vi,  63.) 

From  all  this  we  see  that  Life  is  not  a  created  thing  ; 
but  something  given  to  all  men  and  things  by  the  Lord. 
God  breathes  into  men  the  breath  of  life.  Nothing, 
therefore,  can  exist  but  in  connection  with  the  Lord,  by 
the  constant,  unbroken  stream  of  influent  life.  This  life, 
in  its  Essence,  being  Love  and  Wisdom,  the  human  will 
and  understanding  are  the  only  receptacles .  of  it,  which 
can  affectionately  feel,  and  rationally  understand  this  con- 
nection. Men  can  know  something  of  God,  and  can  love 
Him.  Other  things  receive  the  life,  but  know  nothing 
about  it.  This  Divine  Life,  then,  ever  flows  into  and 
vitalizes  the  entire  universe,  and  is  consequently  the  mo- 
tive force  of  all  action. 

It  is  a  mistaken  philosophy  which  supposes  that  the 
Creator  gave  to  the  universe,  at  its  creation,  certain  laws  ; 
such  as  motion,  gravitation,  heat,  light,  life,  germination, 
growth,  and  reproduction  ;  and  that  these  laws  were  made 
innate,  and  were  given  to  the  universe  as  its  own ;  and 
that  having  been  put  in  motion,  all  things  must  continue 
to  move  on  till  the  Hand  that  created  them  shall  see  fit  to 
stop  them.  For  the  laws,  in  reality,  belong  not  to  nature. 
Strictly  speaking,  nature  has  no  laws.  God's  thoughts 
are  the  only  laws,  and  His  feelings  are  the  only  impulses 
which  move  this  vast  domain.  Should  He  cease  to  think 
and  feel,  all  would  stop ;  yea,  all  would  cease  to  be.  Na- 
ture itself  cannot  think,  feel,  nor  act.  The  Divine  Love, 
Wisdom,  and  Power  are  its  life,  laws,  and  energies.  Na- 
ture without  these  is  but  a  dead  body.  Nor  has  it  life 
enough  to  move  onward  a  single  step  further  without  the 


60  THE   DIVINE   INFLUX. 

influx  of  more.  The  creative  and  propelling  powers  are 
the  same. 

This  creative  force  is  the  spring  of  all  conception  and 
birth — whether  spiritual  or  natural ;  whether  human, 
animal,  vegetable,  or  mineral.  It  forms  the  gem,  opens 
the  bud,  expands  the  flower,  and  ripens  the  fruit.  It  is 
the  fountain  of  all  heat,  and  the  source  of  all  light.  But, 
it  is  asked,  Does  not  the  sun  give  heat  and  light,  germina- 
tion and  growth  to  the  things  of  earth  ?  We  answer,  No : 
the  sun  has  no  power  to  do  anything.  It  is  a  mere  instru- 
ment through  which  the  Lord  operates  in  this  lower 
sphere.  The  heat  and  light  of  the  sun  are  but  the  ulti- 
mates  or  effects  of  God's  Love  and  Wisdom.  This  Love 
and  Wisdom  are  in  every  ray  of  light  which  the  sun  gives 
forth.  Should  God's  Love  and  Wisdom  cease  to  flow 
into  the  sun,  it  would  not  only  cease  to  shine,  but  it  would 
cease  to  be.  The  sun,  therefore,  has  no  heat  but  from 
God's  Love,  and  no  light  but  from  His  Wisdom.  And 
yet  the  heat  of  the  sun  is  not  Love,  nor  is  its  light  Wis- 
dom. They  are  but  the  effects  or  correspondences  of 
Love  and  Wisdom.  Thus  the  natural  universe  of  things 
is  the  effect  of  God's  Love,  Wisdom,  and  Power,  as  the 
great  First  Cause;  and  the  Cause  is  ever  giving  life  to 
the  effect.  This  must  be  BO  :  for  God  is  Life,  and  He 
yiveth  Life  to  the  world,  and  to  all  things,  and  the  Words 
which  He  speaks  are  this  life ;  for  His  Words  must  con- 
tain His  Love  and  Wisdom. 

The  operation  of  this  Divine  Influx  into  all  things,  is 
the  great  law  of  Creative  Life.  By  its  outgoing  influ- 
ence the  universe  was  created,  and  all  was  pronounced 
good.  And  when  that  work  was  finished,  to  the  extent 
that  man  was  created,  and  all  was  very  good,  everything 
was  under  this  Divine  Law  of  Love  and  Wisdom,  and  the 


THE   DIVINE   INFLUX.  61 

Divine  Law  was  in  everything :  "  I  in  thee  and  thou  in  me," 
saith  the  Lord.  Man  was  an  image  of  his  Maker  and  the 
world  was  an  image  of  man,  and  all  was  in  perfect  har- 
mony from  the  dust  of  the  earth  up  to  the  great  Jehovah. 
The  divine,  outflowing  Love  was  the  life  of  all ;  and  the 
Divine  "Wisdom  was  the  Law  in  which  everything  moved, 
at  the  Infinite  impulse  of  the  Divine  Love.  Not  an  im- 
pure thought  to  becloud  the  understanding,  nor  an  unkind 
feeling  to  disturb  the  bosom  of  happy  humanity.  The 
heavens  declared  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament 
showed  His  handiwork.  &un  and  moon  praised  Him. 
All  stars  and  light  praised  Him:  fruitful  trees  and  all 
cedars  ;  beasts  and  all  cattle ;  worms  and  feathered  fowl. 
Everything  that  had  breath  praised  the  Lord.  Nature 
was  one  universal  harp,  with  every  string  in  concord. 
The  balmy  breath  of  heaven  swept  its  ten  thousand  strings 
in  perfect  harmony.  It  was  prepared,  in  all  its  sweetness 
and  beauty,  for  man's  delight,  edification,  and  develop- 
ment. 

Under  these  blessed  auspices,  man  was  introduced  into 
being,  in  the  infancy  of  his  days,  as  the  highest  and  ten- 
derest  object  of  the  Divine  care.  All  was  made  for  man. 
Here  he  was  in  the  bright  sunshine  of  youth,  with  a  soul 
in  perfect  concord  with  the  golden  harp  of  nature ;  with 
the  beautiful  earth  spread  out  at  his  feet,  and  the  shining 
heavens  rolling  above  him.  Thus  we  first  find  man  in 
the  garden  of  paradise,  with  a  mind  just  opening  for  the 
reception  of  knowledge:  God  the  Teacher,  man  the 
pupil,  and  the  universe  his  text-books ;  and  every  page 
told  the  truth.  Not  an  object  before  him,  in  the.  vast 
creation,  but  which  was  lovely,  and  spake  to  him  in 
accents  of  wisdom  and  kindness,  from  the  Fountain  of 
his  being.  And  his  soul  responded  in  emotions  of  good 


62  THE   DIVINE   INFLUX. 

will.  One  universal  law  of  light  and  life  pervaded  the 
scene  ;  and  there  was  no  evil  in  existence.  God  was  the 
source  of  all  Power,  and  all  that  Power  ever  went  forth 
from  Him  in  the  Laws  of  Wisdom  and  Love ;  and  all  was 
harmony. 

Could  that  harmony  be  disturbed  ?  It  could :  and  man 
was  the  only  being  in  existence  that  could  do  it.  All 
other  created  things  but  acted  out,  by  intuition,  the  per- 
fect uses  of  their  existence.  They  had  no  will  nor  wisdom 
of  their  own.  They  were  made  for  this  world  only,  and 
answered  the  full  purpose  of  their  being. 

But  man  was  designed  for  a  higher  sphere  of  life.  He 
was  now  only  in  the  germ  of  his  manhood  ;  possessing  an 
innumerable  variety  of  undeveloped  principles  and  facul- 
ties. Everything  in  the  universe  corresponded  to  those 
principles.  Each  object  denoted  something  which  God 
possessed  in  its  fulness  and  man  in  the  germ.  And  it 
was  only  in  the  proper  development  of  these  principles  of 
man's  nature,  that  he  could  obtain  true  knowledge.  But 
in  their  orderly  development,  he  would  obtain  knowledge 
of  everything — of  God,  of  the  universe,  and  of  himself. 

Now,  it  is  because  man  possessed  in  himself,  from  the 
Lord,  the  elements  of  the  .universe  in  embryo,  that  he  was 
capable  of  scientifically  investigating  nature,  and  her  laws 
of  action.  Man  could  learn  nothing  of  lower  things  if  he 
did  not,  from  the  Lord,  possess  some  elements  of  them  in 
himself.  All  knowledge  whatever  that  man  can  possibly 
obtain,  is  only  an  insight  into  human  nature  and  its  rela- 
tions, making  man  thereby  acquainted  with  God  and 
His  works. 

The  reason  an  animal  cannot  be  taught  science  is,  he 
is  but  a  fragment  of  something,  and  that  fragment  is  all 
that  he  ever  can  be.  A  certain  animal  corresponds  to  a 


THE   DIVINE   INFLUX.  63 

principle  in  man's  affections.  To  that  particular  charac- 
ter he  is  limited ;  having  no  variety  of  principles  whereby 
lie  can  compare,  distinguish,  and  reason.  But  man  can 
learn  anything,  not  Infinite,  because  he  is  the  embodi- 
ment and  combination  of  the  elements  of  all  finite  things ; 
for  man  was  made  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  his  God, 
and  therefore  must  contain,  in  a  limited  degree,  the  capa- 
city to  receive  something  of  all  the  Divine  Elements  con- 
tained in  nature.  Eternity,  therefore,  cannot  fully  satisfy 
this  capacity. 

Nor  can  these  elements  or  possibilities  of  the  human 
mind  be  developed  from  any  powers  or  principles  which 
man  possesses  in  himself.  All  power  is  in  God,  and  the 
Life  of  all  the  Elements*  of  being  is  in  Him/  No  created 
thing  can  be  developed  beyond  its  capacities,  and  every- 
thing is  developed  by  influx  from  God. 

The  elementary  capacities  for  obtaining  all  science  and 
knowledge  are  in  man,  as  the  elementary  capacities  for 
the  development  of  the  tree  are  in  the  acorn.  But,  as  the 
tree  cannot  be  developed  from  the  acorn  without  the  heat 
and  light  of  the  sun,  so  neither  can  man  be  developed 
without  the  Love  and  "Wisdom  of  God.  But  there  is  a 
great  difference  in  the  mode  in  which  the  heat  and  light 
of  the  sun  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the  acorn,  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  tree ;  and  that  in  which  the  Love  and 
Wisdom  of  God  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the  human 
mind,  in  the  development  of  man.  And  a  full  knowledge 
of  this  difference  shows  the  origin  of  all  discord. 

Now,  there  is  something  in  the  acom  besides  matter. 
There  is  life  there,,  with  all  the  tendencies  to  produce 
trunk,  branches,  leaves,  blossoms,  and  fruit.  So  there  is 
life  in  man  at  his  birth,  with  tendencies  to  produce  a 
human  soul  in  full  manhood.  Both  the  tree  arid  the  man 


64  THE  DIVINE  INFLUX. 

are  to  be  developed  by  means  of  influent  life  from  the 
Lord.  But  the  tree  is  entirely  passive  in  its  development, 
while  man  is  active  in  the  formation  of  his  mind.  •  In- 
deed, none  of  the  lower  orders  of  things  have  any  free 
agency  in  their  formation.  They  are  obliged  to  be  formed 
just  as  they  are.  Nor  can  they  change  in  the  least  the 
order  or  character  of  their  development.  But  man  has  an 
agency  in  establishing  the  character  and  quality  of  his 
mind.  He  is  not  obliged  to  cultivate  his  mind  at  all. 
Indeed,  he  must  work  hard,  in  order  properly  to  develop 
his  faculties.  And  he  can  change  the  order  and  character 
of  the  growth  of  his  mind.  He  can  cultivate  either  a  kind 
or  an  unkind  disposition. 

The  reason  why  animals  cannot  change  the  order  and 
character  of  their  development  is,  that  there  can  be  no 
separation  between  their  thoughts  and  their  feelings ;  they 
being,  in  their  fragmentary  condition,  neither  free  nor 
rational.  Their  thought  is  an  intuitive  act  of  the  mind 
flowing  from  instinctive  feeling,  by  means  of  influent  life. 
Therefore,  the  thought  is  but  an  outward  expression  or 
action  of  the  feeling,  and  cannot  be 'separated  from  it. 
There  can,  therefore,  be  no  hypocrisy  in  an  animal. 

The  reason  man  can  change  the  order  and  character 
of  the  development  of  his  mind  is,  that  he  can  separate 
his  thoughts  from  his  feelings.  He  can  think  one  thing 
and  desire  another.  He  can,  therefore,  say  what  he 
knows  to  be  false.  Thus  man  can  do  what  no  other 
creature  can  do,  nor  even  God  himself.  Man  can  lie.  No 
other  creature  can  bear  false  witness.  If  an  animal  be 
angry,  he  manifests  it  the  moment  the  anger  rises.  But 
man  can  approacji  you  with  a  smile  in  his  face,  malice  in 
his  heart,  and  the  concealed  dagger  in  his  hand  to  plunge 
into  your  bosom. 


THE   DIVINE  INFLUX.  65 

Now,  here  is  a  quality  not  in  harmony  with  God  or 
His  laws.  Indeed,  it  is  the  very  essence  of  hell,  and  is 
the  means  of  all  discord  and  misery.  It  nowhere  existed 
when  God  pronounced  all  things  good.  Man,  therefore, 
must  have  introduced  it  into  the  world.  It  could  not 
spring  from  God ;  for  God  is  love.  It  could  not  come 
from  His  laws,  for  they  condemn  it.  Man,  by  habit, 
corrupted  his  own  affections  and  thoughts,  and  thus  intro- 
duced sin  and  death  into  the  world. 

But,  why  did  not  God  make  man  so  that  he  could  not 
fall  ?  Because  that  would  be  making  him  so  that  he 
would  not  be  a  man.  God  desired  to  make  man,  not  a 
machine.  All  that  God  does  is  right :  man  only  does 
wrong. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GOD  AND  CREATION ;  OR,  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT. 

A  glance  at  the  movement  of  Creative  Life,  by  Efflux  and  Influx,  producing 
Action  and  Reaction,  and  establishing  the  Divine  Law  of  Analogy  between 
Spiritual  and  Natural  or  Mental  and  Physical  Things. 

THE  first  principle  in  existence  is  Life — Life  Infinite, 
Self-existent,  Substantial,  and  Eternal — Life  that  can 
neither  be  increased  nor  diminished,  but  which  is  con- 
stantly manifesting  Itself  in  new  creations  and  varieties 
of  forms  and  qualities,  with  given  powers,  and  means  of 
perpetual  multiplication  and  extension.  This  Life  is 
therefore  the  Centre,  the  Source,  and  the  Father  of  every- 
thing ;  ever  sustaining  and  giving  life  to  all  It  creates. 
And  though  It  is  Infinite,  and  therefore  above  man's 
comprehension,  yet  we  obtain  the  first  rational  approach 
toward  It  in  thought  by  contemplating  It  as  consisting 
of  three  inseparable,  essential  Elements — Infinite  Love  or 
Will,  Infinite  Wisdom  or  Understanding,  and  Infinite 
Power  or  Energy.  This  Life,  therefore,  is  Divine  Sub- 
stance— The  Great  Jehovah  Himself— the  Infinite  and 
Eternal  Cause  of  the  created  universe,  as  the  finite  effect. 
This  effect  is  ever  connected  with  the  Cause,  is  sustained 
by  It,  and  is  constantly  filled  with  life  from  It. 


GOD   AND   CREATION  J    OB,   CAUSE   AND   EFFECT.  67 

As  this  Divine  Life  flows  out  from  the  Creative  Cen- 
tre, It  produces  and  sustains  all  things  in  their  order, 
from  highest  to  lowest  and  from  lowest  to  highest,  creat- 
ing in  Its  descent  all  the  various  spheres  of  action  in 
regular  succession.  Through  these  spheres,  into  the  final 
ultimate  or  mineral  kingdom,  upon  which  all  other  things 
rest,  the  Divine  Elements  are  ever  descending  and  oper- 
ating for  new  creations.  For,  in  the  material  plane,  all 
power  can  be  exercised  in  the  forces  of  action  and  reac- 
tion. Matter  is,  therefore,  the  field  of  action  for  all  crea- 
tive life.  Without  it,  the  effluent  Life  from  God  would 
be  unproductive  for  the  want  of  a  created  substance  or 
base  to  evolve  Itself  in  and  act  upon,  for  the  creation  of 
new  and  higher  forms  of  being.  All  the  angels  of  heav- 
en, therefore,  must  have  commenced  their  existence  in 
this  ultimate  plane  of  being,  and  have  ascended  from 
these  low  beginnings  up  the  scale  of  life,  forming  the 
various  heavens,  and  must  be  still  approximating  the  per- 
fection of  their  Heavenly  Father  by  the  higher  elements 
of  life  He  is  ever  imparting  to  them  adapted  to  their  ad- 
vancing states,  for  their  more  full  and  perfect  develop- 
ment. Thus  the  angel  whom  John  was  about  to  worship 
on  Patmos  said,  "  See  thou  do  it  not :  for  I  am  thy  fellow- 
servant,  and  of  thy  brethren  the  prophets  : "  and  though 
in  heaven,  yet  their  life  must  ever  rest  and  act  upon  the 
ultimates  in  which  their  existence  commenced.  For 
every  human  being  is  a  recipient  and  medium  of  life  from 
God,  and  that  life  stops  not  in  its  descent  until  it  reaches 
the  ultimate  of  all  existences — the  great  work-house  of 
creation.  Every  variety  of  life,  therefore,  is  represented 
in  the  material  world.  Therefore  the  Lord  says,  "  The 
heaven  is  my  throne,  and  the  earth  is  my  footstool."  (Is'a. 
Ixvi,  1.) 


68         GOD  AND  CREATION;  OR,  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT. 

This  life,  being  spiritual  substance,  is  discretely  dis- 
tinct from  matter,  yet  matter  manifests  it  and  is  filled 
with  it,  as  the  human  body  is  filled  with  a  living  soul. 
Thus  there  are  two  universes — the  spiritual  and  the  ma- 
terial, or  the  universe  of  mind  and  the  universe  of  matter. 
The  spiritual  or  mental  world  consists  of  God,  the  angels 
and  spirits,  and  the  souls  of  men,  and  the  elements  of  life 
in  all  their  variety  of  forms  and  qualities.  The  material 
world  embraces  the  bodies  of  men  and  all  other  matter 
of  the  universe.  The  spiritual  world  is  the  world  of 
causes,  and  the  material  world  is  the  world  of  effects. 
And  as  there  can  be  no  effect  without  its  cause,  so  there 
can  be  nothing  in  the  world  of  matter  which  does  not  dis- 
tinctly represent  something  in  the  world  of  mind.  And 
it  represents  it  by  the  perfect  Divine  Law  of  analogy. 
This  law  is  the  relation  which  must  exist  between  a  cause 
and  its  effect.  Therefore,  between  the  world  of  Mind 
and  the  world  of  Matter  this  law  of  analogy  universally 
prevails  ;  so  that  spiritual  things  are  to  be  understood  by 
analogy,  through  natural  things.  Thus  when  light  is 
mentioned  in  the  Word  it  means,  by  analogy,  truth. 
This  analogy  is  not  like  a  common  figure  of  speech.  It 
is  a  higher  law  than  can  exist  between  one  natural  thing 
and  another.  It  is  the  union  of  inner  things  with  outer, 
or  higher  things  with  lower.  Indeed,  it  is  the  great  law 
by  which  the  spiritual  and  natural  worlds  exist.  For  as 
an  effect  cannot  exist  without  a  cause,  so  neither  can  a 
cause  exist  without  an  effect. 

Therefore  the  entire  created  universe  is  a  constantly 
renewed  and  sustained  result  from  and  by  the  Lord.  It 
is  not  God,  but  is  the  effect  of  God.  God  is  the  Cause  ; 
and  He  fills  the  universe  with  life.  It  is  because  the 
effect  is  related  to  the  cause  that  He  can  fill  it  with  life. 


GOD  AND  CREATION;  OB,  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT.         69 

This  relation  is  the  law  of  analogy,  and  it  is  the  means 
which  holds  the  universe  together  and  to  its  Creator. 

Now  the  great  end  or  object  of  the  Creator,  in  giving 
existence  to  the  universe,  must  have  been  the  production 
of  His  own  image  and  likeness  in  created  intelligences, 
whom  He  could  forever  bless  and  make  happy  by  His 
own  goodness  and  truth,  whereby  they  could  know  Him 
and  love  Him,  and  thus  be  filled  with  heavenly  life  and 
joy.  This  we  may  see  from  the  universal  law  wherein 
everything  is  in  the  eifort  to  produce  its  kind — to  bring 
forth  its  own  likeness.  The  imparting  of  that  law  to  all 
His  creatures  emphatically  bespeaks  its  existence  in  God. 

Now  a  man,  in  true  order,  is  in  the  image  and  like- 
ness of  God  ;  but  any  other  created  thing,  below  man,  is 
only  an  image  of  some  principle  in  God  or  in  man. 

The  order  of  the  outward  creation  of  the  world  was 
from  lower  things  to  higher :  first  minerals,  then  vege- 
tables, then  animals,  and  finally  man ;  thus  orderly  and 
gradually  approximating,  by  higher  and  purer  organiza- 
tions, the  real  Divine  Image,  until  God  finally  crowned 
the  creation  with  man  as  the  sum  total  and  embodiment 
of  all  things  below  him  :  for  when  all  but  man  was  cre- 
ated, and  everything  was  in  readiness  to  produce  him,  the 
vast  varieties  of  things  scattered  throughout  the  universe 
were  but  humanity  in  fragments.  Everything  was  an 
image  of  some  principle  which  was  to  be  in  man  ;  and  it 
took  them  all  combined  to  make  man.  Man  could  not 
exist  until  these  things  were  created ;  for  upon  them  his 
body  must  subsist,  and  through  them  his  mind  must  be 
educated.  And  when  all  these  materials  were  brought 
harmoniously  together  in  man,  and  all  was  pronounced 
good,  the  vast  universe  represented  man,  and  man  repre- 
sented his  Maker. 


70         GOD  JLND  CREATION;  OK,  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT. 

Who  cannot  see  that  the  things  which  God  creates 
must,  as  they  come  from  Him,  be  in  their  degree  like 
Him,  so  far  as  finite  things  can  be  like  the  Infinite  ?  His 
Love  desires  their  creation,  His  Wisdom  devises  the 
mode,  and  His  Power  executes  it ;  and  they  come  forth, 
not  out  of  nothing,  but  from  Himself,  and  He  gives  them 
their  life  and  existence.  The  withdrawal  of  His  Love 
from  any  created  objects  would  at  that  instant  cut  off  the 
stream  of  life,  and  they  would  cease  to  be.  It  requires  the 
same  power  to  sustain  as  it  does  to  create.  Preservation 
is  perpetual  creation. 

From  this  ground  we  see  that,  during  the  whole  pro- 
cess of  the  creation,  God  was  making  man ;  that  He  is 
the  Infinite  Man,  the  Eternal  Creator  of  His  own  image  ; 
and  that  all  things  that  He  creates  must,  as  they  come 
from  His  hands,  be  in  their  degree  expressions  of  some- 
thing of  Himself.  But  He  does  not  add  to  Himself.  He 
makes  nothing  Infinite.  Infinity  is  all.  Everything  is 
involved  in  it. 

The  highest  individual  image  of  God  is  the  wisest  and 
purest  man  or  angel.  But  even  that  image  is  being  con- 
stantly improved  by  the  further  reception  of  goods  and 
truths  for  its  ever-expanding  mind  and  increasing  wants. 
And  the  affectionate  union  of  various  wise  and  good 
minds  into  a  society,  imparting  to  each  other  what  the 
Lord  gives  them,  is  a  higher  and  more  full  image  than  an 
individual.  And  this  image  will  be  forever  improving 
by  the  advancement  of  each  of  its  parts,  and  by  the  con- 
tinual accumulation  of  more  individuals.  For  no  two 
men  are  alike,  and  no  two  receive  alike  from  the 
Lord.  Each  individual  added  to  the  society  is  a  new 
medium  of  life  to  the  general  body,  having  something  to 
give  which  the  society  did  not  before  receive,  and  thus 


GOD  AND  CREATION;  OR,  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT.        71 

supplying  a  deficiency  in  the  general  image,  and  adding 
to  the  life  and  happiness  of  all.  But  the  perfection  of  the 
Divine  Original  can  never  be  reached,  though  forever  ap- 
proximated. For  Infinity  can  never  exhaust  itself  by 
giving  forth  new  finite  expressions  of  its  parts  in  created 
intelligences,  filling  them  with  life. 

'Now-  in  the  process  of  creation,  when  all  things  were 
in  readiness  for  the  production  of  man ;  when  the  vast 
variety  of  human  principles  lay  scattered  throughout  the 
mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  kingdoms  in  living  forms  ; 
when  all  nature  was  a  beautiful  page  of  mental  symbols 
in  physical  robes,  with  no  created  rational  being  on  earth 
to  read  the  expressive  characters,  and  love  and  worship 
the  Author ;  then  it  is  that  we  behold  Man  making  his 
appearance — Man,  the  sum  total  of  creation — the  con- 
necting link  between  God  above  him  and  nature  below 
him,  and  thus  the  crowning  act  of  the  creation. 

And  as  man  was  made  above  all  other  things  in  the 
scale  of  creation,  by  being  endowed  with  rationality  and 
freedom ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  embracing  within  him- 
self all  the  various  qualities  of  life  which  animated  the 
natural  world ;  therefore  life  had,  thereafter,  to  be  sup- 
plied to  natural  things,  through  the  medium  of  man. 
For  the  order  of  influent  life  from  God  must  ever  be 
through  higher  things  into  lower. 

As  this  stream  of  life  passes  through  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  man,  he  imparts  to  it  his  qualities :  conse- 
quently, as  man  fell  the  various  creatures  and  things 
below  man  partook  of  his  depravity.  Thus  they  became 
changed  and  modified,  according  to  the  various  vicissi- 
tudes and  changes  of  man's  states  and  qualities.  Nature 
became  corrupted  through  man's  vileness.  The  earth 
brought  forth  thorns  and  thistles ;  the  wild  beasts  became 
quarrelsome  and  ferocious ;  and  poisonous  serpents  and 


72         GOD  AND  CREATION;  OK,  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT. 

• 

reptiles,  hawks  and  owls,  moles  and  bats  annoyed  the 
human  race.  And  the  labor  necessary  to  cultivate  the 
earth,  subdue  the  thorns  and  thistles,  and  guard  against 
and  control  the  wild  beasts  and  serpents,  in  order  to  sus- 
tain and  secure  man's  physical  life,  perfectly  represents 
the  mental  labor  necessary  to  subdue  and  control  the  evils 
and  falsities  of  the  soul,  for  the  proper  sustenance  and 
security  of  spiritual  life. 

But  here  an  objection  may  be  raised  on  the  ground 
that  carnivorous  animals,  reptiles,  fishes,  and  insects,  ex- 
isted and  preyed  upon  each  other  before  man  was  upon 
the  earth.  But  it  does  not  follow  from  this  that  there 
was  anything  like  anger  or  malice  in  them — anything 
that  disposed  them  to  fight  for  the  sake  of  fighting.  They 
had  appetites  that  demanded  food,  and  they  could  satisfy 
those  appetites  without  feelings  of  revenge,  or  any  spirit 
but  what  flowed  from  the  innocent  demands  of  nature. 
The  fishes  could  prey  upon  each  other,  and  the  birds 
upon  the  insects,  as  a  means  of  subsistence  and  general 
good,  without  disorder.  Fishes  and  insects  seem  to  be 
multiplied  for  this  purpose.  And  did  not  the  fishes  prey 
upon  each  other,  the  exuberance  of  their  progeny  would 
fill  the  waters  and  produce  general  destruction.  The 
things  of  nature  must  subsist  upon  what  nature  brings 
forth,  as  a  matter  of  course ;  and  all  are  for  the  service 
and  subsistence  of  man.  The  question  is,  whether  there 
was  anything  infectious  or  malignant  in  nature — venom 
in  the  serpent's  tooth,  or  poison  in  the  mineral  or  vege- 
table kingdom  ;  or  thorns  and  thistles,  blight  and  mildew 
destroying  the  good  fruits,  or  warlike  and  quarrelsome 
propensities  in  the  animals.  And  God's  very  Nature  for- 
bids us  to  believe  it  possible.  And  His  Word  seems 
clearly  to  teach  that  these  things  are  the  consequences 
of  the  "Fall." 


GOD  AND  CREATION;  OK,  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT.        73 

As  this  stream  of  instructive  or  creative  life  leaves  the 
Heavenly  Father,  it  is,  of  course,  pure.  And,  coming 
from  the  Divine  Mind,  it  must  be  goodness  and  truth  in 
Divine  Feelings  and  Thoughts.  Therefore,  its  first  recep- 
tion must  be  into  angelic  minds  nearest  the  Lord — into 
wills  and  understandings  of  the  first  order.  And  the 
Lord,  from  His  Infinite  prescience,  must  mercifully  adapt 
this  instruction  to  their  finite  capacities.  These  celestial 
angels,  in  imparting  these  elements  of  mental  life,  this 
food  for  souls,  to  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  their  pupils, 
must,  in  order  to  adapt  it  to  their  states,  impart  to  it 
something  of  the  quality  of  their  own  affections.  And 
these  new  recipients  must,  by  their  qualities,  attemper 
the  mental  stream  to  the  minds  next  below  them.  And 
thus  the  stream  must  flow  on  and  spread  around  each 
sphere  or  state  of  life,  imparting  to  it  something  of  its 
own  peculiarity  of  thought  and  feeling  as  it  gives  the 
mental  food  to  the  neighbor ;  each  one  receiving  it  ac- 
cording to  his  state,  until,  from  the  general  sphere  of  hu- 
manity on  earth  and  the  particular  sphere  of  each  indi- 
vidual, it  flows  on  down  into  the  irrational  though 
animate  creation,  below  man ;  carrying  with  it,  into  the 
animals,  all  man's  various  qualities  of  temper,  disposition, 
and  propensity,  both  good  and  bad.  From  thence  it 
flows  down  into  the  inanimate  creation,  through  the 
vegetable  into  the  mineral  kingdom,  Here  it  reaches 
the  basis  of  all  creative  action — the  common  ground  for 
the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  all  organic  life. 

Now,  does  any  one,  in  reading  this  chapter,  doubt  the 
truth  of  tnis  law  and  order  of  creation  ?  Let  him  read 
understaiidingly  the  preceding  chapters,  and  he  will  come 
to  the  conclusion  that,  the  first  chapter  being  true,  the 
second  must  be  true  also,  and  that  the  truth  of  the  third 
4 


74:  GOD   AND   CREATION  ;   OK,   CAUSE   AND   EFFECT. 

and  fourth  follows  as  a  matter  of  course ;  and  then  he 
will  see  that  the  truth  of  this  chapter  is  a  necessary  se- 
quence of  the  whole ;  that  they  all  stand  in  their  order, 
upon  the  eternal  laws  of  God,  as  read  in  Revelation  and 
Nature ;  that  there  is  no  breaking  the  chain  of  argu- 
ment ;  that  we  must  adopt  the  whole  or  none.  If  the 
premises  laid  down  in  the  first  chapter  be  false,  then  we 
are  afloat  upon  the  broad  ocean  of  uncertainty,  amid  all 
its  shoals  and  whirlpools,  without  a  compass  or  chart. 
ISTo  pure  Heavenly  Father,  and  no  Divine  Eevelation,  that 
can  enter  the  rational  faculty  and  commend  themselves 
to  the  human  heart.  O  God  of  Light  and  Life,  save  us 
from  this  wreck.  "  Open  Thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may 
behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law."  (Ps.  cxix,  18.) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  SCIENCE  OP  COEEESPONDENCES :    THE  KEY  TO  THE 
HUMAN  MIND. 

THIS  science  not  only  shows  the  relation  between  the 
literal  and  spiritual  senses  of  the  Word,  but  also  between 
the  body  and  the  soul  of  man.  By  means  of  it,  we  look 
through  the  literal  sense  of  Scripture,  in  all  its  myste- 
ries, and  obtain  a  rational  knowledge  of  the  spiritual 
sense  ;  and  then,  by  means  of  this  knowledge,  we  gain  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  design  and  use  of  the  literal 
sense  ;  and,  thus,  a  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  Word 
is  established.  So,  also,  we  may  look,  by  correspondence 
and  the  light  of  the  Word,  up  through  our  physical  sys- 
tem, to  our  spiritual  being,  and  obtain  a  rational  knowl- 
edge of  the  soul,  and  then,  by  means  of  this  knowledge, 
we  may  gain  a  clear  understanding  of  the  design  and  use 
of  the  material  body,  and  how  to  treat  it. 

In  seeking  this  view  of  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word, 
our  efforts  will  be  much  facilitated,  by  keeping  in  mind 
the  fact,  that  we  are  seeking,  solely,  a  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  man,  for  the  purposes  of  human  salvation ;  that 
the  Word  is  given  for  no  other  purpose.  It  is,  therefore, 
filled  with  Divine  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  with  sym- 


76  THE   SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCES. 

bols  of  human  thoughts  and  feelings,  all  clothed  in  human 
language,  and  adapted,  by  correspondences,  to  the  under- 
standings of  men. 

These  Divine  thoughts  and  feelings  are  elements  of 
life  for  our  souls,  designed  for  our  understandings  and 
wills.  They  come,  in  practical  lessons  of  Divine  Wisdom, 
for  the  improvement  of  the  mind,  and  the  action  of  the 
body,  always  presenting,  first  and  foremost,  as  the  stan- 
dard of  all  excellence,  the  qualities  of  the  Great  Jehovah, 
that  we  may  know  good  from  evil,  truth  from  falsity,  and 
see  where  we  stand,  and,  the  "Way  of  Life. 

In  all  this  we  look  above  the  bodies  of  men  and  their 
acts,  to  the  souls  and  their  intentions :  we  look,  by  cor- 
respondences, through  the  things  of  this  world  and  their 
history,  to  the  thoughts  and  feelings,  the  elements  and 
actions  of  the  mind  and  their  history  ;  and  thence,  down 
to  our  outward  duties;  so  that  all  Sacred  Scripture  be- 
comes profitable  for  doctrine,  reproof,  correction  and  in- 
struction in  righteousness. 

But  most  men  have  been  so  long  looking  down  to  mat- 
ter and  natural  things,  instead  of  up  to  mind  and  spiritual 
things,  that  they  do  not  know  themselves.  The  soul  of 
man  is  the  great  enigma  of  the  age.  Of  its  substance, 
quality,  life,  and  destiny,  the  natural  man  has  no  rational 
thought.  But  an  intense  and  growing  anxiety  is  being 
felt  on  the  subject,  and  will  continue  to  increase  until  the 
problem  is  solved.  The  only  key  to  its  solution,  for  men 
in  this  world,  is  the  science  of  correspondences :  and  the 
only  Light  which  presents  it  is  the  spiritual  sense  of  the 
"Word.  And,  when  we  find  this  light,  it  is  the  Lord 
coming  to  judgment.  If  we  open  our  hearts  to  receive 
Him,  He  will  show  us  what  and  where  we  are,  and  whither 
we  are  tending. 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCES.  77 

But  in  this  feverish  and  sensual  age  concerning  spir- 
itual things,  most  inquirers,  unfortunately,  are  not  looking 
to  the  Word  for  a  knowledge  of  the  soul  and  its  destiny  ; 
the  darkness  of  the  literal  sense,  without  the  spiritual,  has 
turned  them  away  from  it.  And  thousands  are  exceed, 
ingly  active  in  searching  for  light  amid  the  selfish,  un- 
settled opinions  of  frail,  finite  beings,  through  crude  and 
contradictory  manifestations,  made  to  their  natural  senses ; 
they  relying  upon  their  own  sagacity  to  distinguish  truth 
from  falsity.  But,  when  wayward  humanity  shall  have 
fully  run  its  wild  and  fruitless  career  after  spiritual 
knowledge,  amid  the  trash  of  human  weakness  and  pre- 
sumption, it  will  come  to  the  Holy  "Word,  in  its  spirit 
and  life. 

And  that  career  must  be  short ;  for  it  is  enveloped  in 
mystery.  And  the  present  age  of  free  thought,  and  pro- 
gressive intelligence,  cannot  long  be  satisfied  with  dark- 
ness, while  the  very  spirit  which  moves  man  demands  a 
reason  for  everything  it  is  asked  to  believe.  And  this 
demand  extends  throughout  every  department  of  science 
and  knowledge. 

Religion,  therefore,  is  called  up,  before  the  chair  of 
universal  Intelligence,  to  answer  for  her  faith  and  doings. 
And,  even  the  Holy  Word  itself,  is  brought  upon  the 
stand  to  give  testimony  to  the  intelligibleness  of  its  teach- 
ings. And  according  to  the  answers  they  give,  before 
this  tribunal,  they  stand  or  fall  in  the  public  estimation. 
It  is  only  as  they  give  clear  and  cogent  reasons  for  every 
principle  they  teach,  that  they  can  live  in  generations 
which  are  to  come. 

And  though  most  of  the  minds  who  are  seeking  spir- 
itual knowledge  are  so  natural  that  spiritual  things  are 
not  readily  seen,  yet,  mystery  is  ceasing  to  satisfy  them  ; 


78  THE   SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCES. 

and  they  are  demanding  a  reason,  suited  to  their  natural 
judgment.  And,  as  doubts  and  darkness  rest  upon  all 
their  experiments,  as  well  as  upon  the  meaning  of  the 
Word,  therefore,  universal  skepticism  stares  them  in  the 
face. 

All  this  but  increases  the  anxiety  for  a  rational  view 
of  the  nature  and  laws  of  man's  spiritual  being ;  and 
many  minds  are  becoming  ripe  for  the  reception  of  any- 
thing that  will  give  them  the  desired  light.  The  Word, 
in  the  letter — as  well  as  everything  else — has  failed  to  do 
it  for  them.  And  strong  and  honest  minds  are  eager  for 
wisdom.  They  feel  themselves  afloat  upon  the  ocean  of 
uncertainty,  without  a  pilot.  Left  to  wander  in  the  mazes 
of  helpless  unbelief : — a  mental  world  without  a  God  !  A 
universe  without  a  sun  ! 

But  this  is  the  very  preparation  of  mind  necessary  for 
the  reception  of  true  light.  Let  all  such  come,  by  the 
science  of  correspondences,  to  the  Holy  Word,  for  its 
spiritual  light,  and  the  demands  of  their  reason  and  their 
heart  will  be  satisfied.  Let  us,  then,  ever  approach  it, 
with  a  prayerful  desire  to  be  taught  of  the  Lord. 

And  first,  in  order  to  establish  well  in  our  mind  the 
complete  distinction  between  spiritual  and  natural  sub- 
stances, or  between  mind  and  matter,  and  their  corre- 
spondences, we  will  commence  with  ourselves.  We  will 
look  into  our  own  spiritual  or  mental  world,  and  see  what 
we  are,  besides  the  material  body,  and  what  the  corre- 
spondence is  between  our  material  and  mental  beings,  and 
how  far,  and  for  what  purpose,  matter  belongs  to  us.  For 
we  must  look  into  our  own  minds  to  understand  the 
Word  ;  and  the  organs  of  the  body  are  often  brought  up 
to  illustrate  things  of  the  soul.  And,  as  we  learn  to  see 
the  value  of  the  soul  above  that  of  the  body,  we  shall  fix 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCES.  79 

a  similar  value  to  the  spiritual  history  of  the  "Word  above 
that  of  the  letter. 

Now,  strictly  speaking,  we  are  substantial  spiritual 
beings,  not  material.  We  have  each  an  organized  spir- 
itual body,  of  fall  human  form,  filling  every  part  of  the 
material  body,  and  which  was  created  and  formed  with  it, 
and  within  it.  This  spiritual  body  is  composed  of  spiritual 
and  eternal  substances  and  is,  therefore,  indestructible ; 
while  the  material  body  is  subjected  to  the  constant 
changes  common  to  all  matter;  never  remaining  the 
same  body  even  from  one  day  to  another ;  but  is  con- 
stantly being  worn  out,  and  wasted  by  time  and  action, 
and  supplied  with  food,  until  it  is  finally  put  off  by  age, 
sickness,  or  violence ;  leaving  the  spiritual  body  complete 
and  unharmed  by  what  we  call  death. 

Thus  Paul  says,  "  There  is  a  natural  body  and  there 
IS  a  spiritual  body ;"  not  that  there  will  be  a  spiritual 
body  made  of  the  natural.  He  definitely  teaches  that  we 
have  them  both>  while  we  live  in  the  world,  when  he  says, 
"  For  we  know  that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle 
were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God,  an  house  not 
made  with  hands  eternal  in  the  heavens."  Here  we  learn 
that  we  have,  not  only  an  earthly  house  or  material  body 
made  with  hands,  or  fed  with  hands  from  infancy,  and 
which  will  dissolve,  but  also  a  building  of  God,  or  spirit- 
ual body,  not  made  with  hands,  but  by  the  Lord ;  and 
that,  at  the  dissolution  of  the  earthly  house,  we  shall 
retain  the  spiritual  body  and  have  it  forever.  In  confir- 
mation of  this,  Paul  says,  again,  "  We,  that  are  in  this 
tabernacle  do  groan,  being  burdened ;  not  for  that  we 
would  be  unclothed."  Here  he  considers  the  material 
body  mere  clothing.  But  Paul  has  been  much  misunder- 
stood. When  he  says,  "  We  shall  all  be  changed,  in  the 


80  THE    SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCE'S. 

twinkling  of  ail  eye,"  he  does  not  mean,  by  "  We"  the 
natural  bodies,  but  the  souls  that  dwell  in  them  ;  and  that 
these  souls  will  be  changed,  only,  to  a  higher  mode  of 
existence,  at  the  putting  off  of  the  material  body.  For 
the  word  "  We"  when  he  says  "  We  shall  all  be  changed," 
means  precisely  what  it  does  when  he  says,  "  We  that  are 
in  this  tabernacle  do  groan,  being  burdened." 

And,  that  men  go"  into  the  spiritual  world,  at  the  death 
of  the  body,  with  the  spiritual  bodies,  we  know  by  the 
appearance  of  the  angel  whom  John  on  Patmos  was  going 
to  worship,  but  who  said,  "  See  thou  do  it  not,  for  I  am 
of  thy  brethren  the  prophets  ; "  and  by  the  appearance  of 
Moses  and  Elias,  at  the  transfiguration  of  the  Lord,  whom 
Peter,  James,  and  John,  saw  and  talked  with.  They  had 
left  their  material  bodies  in  this  world ;  and  yet,  they 
were  men,  with  bodies. 

Now,  the  separation  of  the  spiritual  body  from  the 
natural,  at  death,  is  "  The  resurrection  from  the  dead.79 
Therefore,  Paul  says,  "  But  some  man  will  say,  How  are 
the  dead  raised  up  ?  and  with  what  body  do  they  come  ? 
Thou  fool,  that  which  thou  so  west  is  not  quickened  except 
it  die  :  arid  that  which  thou  sowest,  thou  so  west  not  that 
body  that  shall  be."  Thus,  as  the  green  blade  in  its  life 
comes  up  from  the  wheat  that  is  sown,  leaving  the  kernel 
to  "  return  to  the  dust  as  it  was,"  so  the  living,  spiritual 
body  rises  from  the  material  body  ;  leaving  the  latter  to 
decompose.  True,  Paul  says,  "  This  corruptible  must  put 
on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  must  put  on  immortal- 
ity ; "  but  when  he  says,  "  put  on,"  he  does  not  mean 
"  changed  into  ; "  for  he  expressly  says  that  "  flesh  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God ;  neither  doth 
corruption  inherit  incorruption."  He  simply  means  by 
that,  we  put  off  the  corruptible  and  mortal,  and  live  in 


THE   SCIENCE   OF  CORRESPONDENCES.  81 

-ne  incorruptible  and  immortal.  And  the  Lord  teaches 
the  same  resurrection,  in  Mark,  when  He  says,  "  And  as 
touching  the  dead,  that  they  rise  :  have  ye  not  read  in  the 
book  of  Moses,  how  in  the  bush  God  spake  unto  him,  saying, 
I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the 
God  of  Jacob  ?  He  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  the 
God  of  the  living."  Thus  teaching  that  their  resurrection 
had  already  taken  place. 

Here  we  see  that  the  soul  or  the  spiritual  body,  with 
the  life,  is  the  man.  The  material  body  is  merely  its  rep- 
resentative ;  and  there  is  a  perfect  correspondence  between 
the  natural  body  and  the  spiritual  body ;  the  same  as 
there  is  between  the  literal  and  the  spiritual  senses  of  the 
"Word.  And  though  these  material  bodies  are  not  our 
real  selves,  but  only  the  clothing  we  wear  in  this  world, 
yet  we  cannot,  here,  approach  one  another  sensibly  except 
through  the  medium  of  this  clothing.  So  we  cannot  ap- 
proach the  spiritual  light  of  the  Word,  with  our  spiritual 
being,  except  through  the  medium  of  our  natural  senses, 
by  reading  or  hearing  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word,  which 
is  the  body  of  the  spiritual  sense,  and  which,  by  corre- 
spondence, enables  us  to  understand  it. 

It  is  true  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word  has  life  ;  but  it 
is  of,  and  from,  the  spiritual  sense.  So  the  material  body 
of  a  man  has  life,  but  it  is  of,  and  from,  the  spiritual  body, 
which  receives  it  from  the  Lord.  Thus  we  feel  one  an- 
other's hands,  when  we  clasp  them  ;  but  the  life  and  sen- 
sation are  all  in,  and  from,  the  spiritual  hands  which  infill 
them.  It  is  not  the  natural  eye  which  sees,  nor  the  natu- 
ral ear  that  hears.  They  are  mere  instruments  by  which 
the  soul  has  communion  with  the  material  world.  And 
so  with  all  the  organs  of  the  body. 

God  and  men,  then,  are  spiritual  beings,  of  spiritual 
4* 


82  THE   SCIENCE   OF    CORRESPONDENCES. 

substance ;  all  their  thoughts  and  feelings  belong  to  the 
spiritual  world.  Consequently,  God's  Word  is  a  spiritual 
book,  coming  from  a  spiritual  Fountain.  It  treats  of  spir- 
itual things ;  of  the  Great  Jehovah,  and  of  angels,  and 
men's  souls ;  of  heaven  and  hell,  of  good  spirits  and  bad 
ones.  None  of  these  things  are  material.  And  yet,  they 
are  mentioned  as  being  substance  with  form :  God,  angels, 
and  spirits,  having  heads  and  bodies,  with  all  their  organs. 
And  the  natural  man  might  suppose  they  referred  to  ma- 
terial things,  when  it  is  the  soul's  welfare  that  God  espe- 
cially regards,  and  every  word  He  speaks  is  to  souls,  and 
for  their  benefit.  True,  He  is  not  unmindful  of  men's 
bodies,  and  He  abundantly  provides  for  them.  But  it  is 
all  for  the  sake  of  the  soul. 

And  the  bodies  of  men,  and  natural  things,  are  always 
made  use  of,  in  the  "Word,  to  teach  us  the  states  and  con- 
ditions of  our  souls.  Therefore,  when  the  "Word  speaks 
of  man's  being  sick  or  diseased ;  naked  or  clothed ;  hun- 
gry or  thirsty ;  lame  or  halt ;  deaf  or  dumb  ;  blind  or  see- 
ing ;  dead  or  alive ;  circumcised  or  baptized ;  or  in  any 
other  condition,  we  must  look,  by  correspondence,  to  the 
state  of  the  soul ;  for  that  is  the  essential  teaching.  The 
language  may  refer  to  the  condition  of  the  body  also,  or 
it  may  not.  Every  miracle,  lesson,  and'  act  of  the  Lord, 
when  in  the  flesh,  toward  the  sick  and  afflicted,  had, 
besides  the  effect  on  their  bodies,  an  effect  also  on  their 
minds,  inspiring  them  with  faith  and  trust  in  the  Lord, 
and  with  a  yielding  up  to  His  "Will ;  and  He  often  told 
them  their  faith  saved  them.  Not  that  they  were  healed, 
simply,  because  they  thought  they  should  be,  but  because 
they  yielded  themselves  entirely  up  to  the  current  of  tin- 
Divine  Life,  and  were  ready  to  act  with  the  Divine  Im- 
pulse, which  gave  a  new  influx,  and  healthy  action  to  the 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCES.  83 

physical  system,  and  crowded  off  the  disease  by  a  univer- 
sal law :  for  the  life  of  the  natural  body  is  through  the 
spiritual  body.  The  personal  sphere  of  the  Lord  was  very 
strong,  and  it  often  had  a  powerful  influence  upon  those 
who  humbly  gave  themselves  up  to  it  and  acted  with  it. 
But  all  these  cures  were  effected,  because  there  was  a  cor- 
respondence between  the  state  of  the  soul  and  that  of  the 
body  ;  and  the  soul  was  first  moved.  True,  persons  were 
sometimes  healed  when  the  Lord  was  not  personally  pres- 
ent, as  in  the  case  of  the  centurion's  servant,  but  he  knew 
his  master  had  gone  for  the  Lord,  and  the  Omnipresent 
God  could,  nevertheless,  reach  him ;  he  being  in  a  state  to 
receive  His  Spirit.  And  all  these  lessons  are  instructions 
to  us  for  the  healing  of  our  spiritual  diseases,  by  His  spir- 
itual coming. 

Now,  because  the  natural  body  is  not  the  man,  but 
only  the  tabernacle  of  clay  in  which  he  lives  ;  and  because 
it  has  no  senses  of  its  own,  but  only  the  senses  of  the  spir- 
itual body,  which  act  through  it,  therefore,  men  are  often 
spoken  of,  in  the  Word,  as  being  lame,  sick,  halt,  blind, 
deaf,  dumb,  dead,  buried,  asleep,  or  in  darkness,  when 
their  natural  bodies  are  not  so.  It  is  the  soul,  in  such 
cases,  that  is  diseased ;  it  is  the  organs  of  the  spiritual 
body  that  are  out  of  order.  Man  is  lame  in  his  spiritual 
walk,  sick  with  sin,  halt  in  his  duty,  blind  to  the  truth, 
deaf  to  the  commandments,  dumb  in  prayer,  dead  in  tres- 
passes, buried  in  depravity,  asleep  as  to  his  religion,  and 
in  the  darkness  of  error.  So  he  is  mentioned  as  hungering 
and  thirsting  when  his  body  has  enough  to  eat  and  drink. 

And  if  our  hand  or  foot  offend,  we  are  commanded  to 
cut  it  off;  and,  if  the  eye  offend,  to  pluck  it  out,  because 
it  is  better  to  enter  into  life  halt  or  maimed,  or  with  one 
eye,  rather  than  having  two  hands,  feet,  or  eyes,  to  be  cast 


84:  THE    SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCES. 

into  hell.  This,  in  the  letter  alone,  is  very  strange  teach- 
ing. Who,  without  correspondences,  regards  it,  or  knows 
what  it  means  ?  Is  he  who  loses  an  eye  of  the  material 
body  to  have  but  one  eye  to  his  spiritual  body  ?  By  such 
reasoning,  the  destitution  of  the  natural  body  would 
destroy  the  soul  also,  and  that  would  be  the  end  of  us. 
The  hand  or  arm,  always,  in  the  Word,  denotes  power. 
Hence  it  is  written,  "  His  right  hand  and  His  holy  arm 
hath  gotten  Him  the  victory."  Thy  "  hand  shall  lift  me 
up."  "  O  God  lift  up  thine  hand." 

For  our  hand  to  offend  is  to  use  the  power  which  God 
gives  us  in  violating  His  laws,  thus  making  it  a  wicked 
hand  or  power.  To  cut  it  off,  is  to  cease  to  use  the  vile 
hand ;  to  cast  it  from  us  is  to  resist  the  propensity  to  do 
wrong,  till  we  lose  the  desire.  The  foot,  from  its  posi- 
tion, in  the  dust,  denotes  the  lowest  and  most  external 
principle  of  the  mind.  For  the  foot  to  offend  is  to  indulge 
in  low  external  acts  of  vice.  To  cut  the  vile  foot  off  is  to 
give  up  the  evil  indulgence  ;  to  cast  it  from  us  is  to  resist 
the  temptation,  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  till  we  loathe 
the  evil.  Hence  the  Lord  washed  the  disciples'  feet  to 
teach  them  to  help  one  another  to  keep  the  natural  man 
clean.  And  He  said  to  Peter,  "  He  that  is  washed  need- 
etli  not  save  to  wash  his  feet,  but  is  clean  every  whit.' 
Thus  showing  that  corruptions  enter  through  the  sinful 
acts  of  the  external  man.  And  that,  when  once  clean, 
there  was  no  danger,  if  they  kept  the  feet  or  external  man 
clean,  or  guarded  well  the  grovelling  avenues  to  sin. 

The  eye  denotes  the  understanding.  For  the  eye  to 
offend  is  to  practise  deception,  and  embrace  falsities  as 
truths.  To  pluck  this  false  eye  out  is  to  cease  to  deceive, 
and  to  stop  trying  to  reason  from  fallacies.  To  cast  it 
from  us  is  to  resist  every  false  thought,  and  seek  for  light 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  COKRES PONDED  CE8.          85 

from  the  Word,  and  declare  it  till  we  love  the  truth  and 
hate  the  He. 

And,  as  to  its  being  better  to  enter  into  life  halt  or 
maimed,  or  with  one  eye,  rather  than  having  two  hands, 
feet,  or  eyes,  to  be  cast  into  hell  fire ;  this  means  that  it  is 
better  to  be  good  and  happy  here,  and  hereafter,  in  sim- 
ple truth  and  virtue,  though  we  cannot  know  everything 
and  have  all  power,  rather  than,  by  being  wise  in  our  own 
eyes,  esteeming  ourselves  great  and  worthy  of  great  do- 
minion, while  we  still  remain  in  the  love  of  self,  to  thus 
cast  ourselves  into  the  fires  of  envy,  jealousy,  and  malice, 
and  all  their  attendant  miseries. 

The  selfish  man  would  think  himself  spiritually  maim- 
ed, if  his  overbearing  powers  were  curtailed.  He  would 
think  himself  halt,  if  his  feet  were  restrained  from  their 
wonted  paths  of  vice.  He  would  think  himself  half  blind, 
if  not  allowed  to  reason  falsely  and  deceive  his  neighbors. 
And  the  Lord  teaches  him,  by  this  scripture,  that  it  is 
better  to  try  to  become  good  and  happy,  in  what  he 
imagines  would  be  a  cramped  and  mutilated  condition, 
rather  than  be  miserable  in  the  full  possession  and  indul- 
gence of  all  his  selfish  powers  and  wants. 

Besides,  we  may  see  that  we  cannot  enter  heaven  with 
two  eyes,  or  rather,  two  opposing  understandings,  one 
dealing  in  falsities  and  the  other  in  truths  ;  we  cannot  go 
there  double-minded,  serving  two  masters  ;  we  must  have 
an  eye  single  to  the  Lord  or  the  Truth.  Nor  can  we  go 
there  with  two  hands,  or  opposing  powers  of  mind,  one 
exercised  in  things  evil,  and  the  other  in  things  good. 
Nor  with  two  feet,  or  opposing  external  principles,  one 
practising  virtues  and  the  other  indulging  in  vices.  "We 
can  go  there  only  in  singleness  of  heart,  mind,  and  action  ; 
led  and  governed  by  the  Lord. 


86  THE   SCIENCE   OF   CORRESPONDENCES. 

Thus  we  may  see  that  the  science  of  correspondences  is 
the  key  to  our  own  spiritual  being,  and  to  the  spiritual  sense 
of  the  Word,  which  shows  us  what  we  really  are,  and  for 
what  we  are  designed..  And  the  pursuance  of  the  investi- 
gation will  show  us  the  wonderful  relation  we  bear  to  all 
the  Divine  teachings,  and  their  peculiar  applicability  to 
the  human  race  under  all  circumstances.  "  Great  are  Thy 
tender  mercies,  O  Lord :  quicken  me  according  to  Thy 
judgments."  "  Behold,  Thou  desirest  truth  in  the  inward 
parts :  and  in  the  hidden  part  Thou  shalt  make  me  to 
know  wisdom." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  WEITTEN  REVELATION  FEOM  GOD. 

As  Man  is  a  recipient  of  life  from  the  Lord,  and  that 
life  is  substantial  Goodness  and  Truth,  received  into  the 
will  and  understanding,  giving  .quality  and  character  to 
his  feelings  and  thoughts,  we  may  readily  see  that,  before 
the  "  fall,"  while  that  will  and  understanding  were  un- 
adulterated, and  man  affectionately  and  rationally  re- 
ceived the  Divine  Elements,  he  would  heartily  respond  to 
every  new  impulse  and  direction  which  his  opening  in- 
tellect and  growing  desires  received  from  the  stream  of 
life,  which  was  ever  meeting  all  his  progressive,  intellec- 
tual wants.  For,  though  he  had  the  elements  of  a  self- 
hood given  him  as  his  own,  consisting  of  freedom^  r<t- 
tionality  and  desire  for  knowledge,  whereby  he  could  be 
elevated  above  the  beasts,  be  connected  with  his  God,  and 
progress  forever ;  yet,  as  he  had  not  abused  that  self- 
hood, it,  of  course,  would  act  in  perfect  unison  with  the 
Divine  Love  and  "Wisdom ;  and  therefore,  as  far  as  his 
faculties  were  developed,  he  would  see  things  in  the  true 
light,  and  act  with  the  Lord.  In  this  primeval  condition, 
while  seeing  and  feeling  from  the  Lord's  "Wisdom  and 
Love,  man  would  act  in  the  divine  current,  and  do  every- 


88  THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   DIVINE   BEVEL ATION. 

thing  he  did,  almost  as  intuitively  as  the  bird  builds  its 
nest.  But  still,  in  consequence  of  his  self-hood,  it  would 
seem  to  him  as  though  his  life  were  his  own,  and  from 
himself,  and  that  he  acted  entirely  from  his  own  powers. 
And  thus  it  seems  to  all  men. 

But  after  man  had  depraved  his  will  and  understand- 
ing, and  thence  had  perverted  the  stream  of  life,  by 
turning  it  into  selfish  and  disorderly  channels,  and  se ad- 
ing  it  out  to  deceive  and  rob  his  neighbors,  instead  of  to 
bless  them,  his  ability  to  see  correctly,  by  intuition,  was 
gone,  and  he  was  without  any  Divine  Guide.  He  could 
now  see,  feel,  and  act  only  from  his  own  selfish  states. 
Nor  can  we  see  how  it  is  possible,  under  such  circum- 
stances, for  the  Lord  to  change  those  states  for  the  better, 
or  arrest  man's  downward  progress,  without  giving  him  a 
written  Revelation,  or  outward  Law,  for  the  direction 
and  government  of  his  feelings,  thoughts,  and  actions. 
For,  though  man  still  had  power  to  act,  from  the  stream 
of  life  given  him,  through  his  internal  mind,  though  that 
stream  was  perverted  ;  yet  he  now  needed  a  Divine  Law 
for  the  external  mind,  as  a  rule  of  action,  in  which  were 
also  the  elements  of  life ;  a  law  which  the  external  un- 
derstanding could  see  to  be  right,  and  which  offered  to 
the  mind  new  powers  and  influences,  as  well  as  new 
duties ;  and  which  explained  to  him  the  true  principles  of 
the  life  which  he  had  perverted ;  a  law  which  would 
teach  him  how  to  repent  and  return  to  true  order ;  a  law 
wherein  man  could  meet  the  Divine  Sphere  of  the  com- 
mandments as  a  ground  of  reaction,  whereby  his  corrupt 
affections  and  thoughts  could  be  seen,  weighed,  and  ex- 
amined by  the  light  of  truth ;  and  thus  he  be  placed  in  a 
position  of  equilibrium,  in  which,  if  he  pleased,  he  could 
take  hold  of  the  offered  power  of  the  Law,  and  resist  his 


THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   DIVINE   EEVELATION.  89 

evil  and  false  inclinations,  and  return  to  true  order,  life, 
and  happiness.  For,  unless  man's  external  mind  could 
meet  elements  of  life  in  goods  and  truths  from  without, 
the  internal  forces  would  drive  him  along  blindly  in  the 
perverted  current  of  life  from  within,  without  his  having 
either  powers  of  reasoning  or  of  choice ;  leaving  him  a 
mere  machine. 

True,  there  is  life  from  without,  filling  the  universe. 
Its  effects  would  meet  his  senses  in  all  the  things  of  na- 
ture. And  between  the  influences  from  within,  and  those 
from  without,  he  could  freely  think  and  act.  And  when 
the  things  of  nature  were  not  before  his  senses,  he  could 
use  the  knowledge  he  had  of  them  in  his  memory,  as  a 
ground  of  mental  action.  But  as  nature  would  present  to 
him  such  a  confused  picture,  and  as  his  fallen  nature  would 
incline  his  heart  to  the  evils  and  temptations  which  he 
there  saw,  he  would  be  sure  to  run  wild  without  a  Divine 
Law.  But  when  the  truths  of  the  "Word  are  given  man 
in  a  written  Law,  he  has  both  the  sphere  of  nature  and  of 
the  Word  as  a  basis  of  action,  and  he  is  then  free  to  do 
right  or  wrong.  For  whatever  may  be  the  character  of 
any  religious  impressions  he  may  have  from  within,  he 
can  now  reason  and  decide  upon  them  either  from  the 
truths  of  the  Word,  or  from  the  things  of  the  memory  or 
of  nature. 

Moreover,  whenever,  in  the  present  state  of  mankind, 
sudden  impressions  are  made  upon  our  mind,  we  cannot 
always  tell  whether  they  are  made  from  within  or  from 
without,  whether  by  the  means  of  the  Holy  Spirit  or  of 
angels,  or  evil  spirits.  But  no  impressions  concerning  the 
doctrines  or  duties  of  life,  the  character  of  God  and  His 
Word,  or  the  destiny  of  man,  should  be  sanctioned,  unless 
they  stand  the  test  of  the  Holy  Word.  For  that  Word 


90  THE   NECESSITY   OF   A  DIVINE  REVELATION. 

is  the  only  safe  interpreter  of  the  character  of  all  spiritual 
influences  or  impressions. 

We  have,  therefore,  rational  grounds  for  concluding 
that  the  means  which  the  Lord  makes  use  of,  through  the 
written  Word,  for  man's  salvation,  are  absolutely  neces- 
sary, and  that  men  can  be  reached  and  saved  only  by 
those  means.  Indeed,  it  looks  like  an  axiom,  that  what 
Infinite  Wisdom  does,  is  infinitely  right  and  necessary, 
and  that,  therefore,  no  other  course  would  be  right  or 
successful. 

From  these  premises  we  may  see  the  reason  why,  since 
the  "  fall,"  the  Merciful  Father  has  always  had  a  written 
Law  for  the  good  of  mankind :  and  just  to  the  extent  that 
that  Law  has  been  respected  and  obeyed,  the  people  have 
been  civil,  orderly,  and  virtuous.  The  reason  is,  they 
have  had  in  this  Law  a  Divine  and  powerful  plane  of 
spiritual  force  for  their  internally  received  elements  of 
life  to  act  against,  and  be  directed  by,  so  as  to  give  the 
freedom  of  man  the  power  of  choice,  and  without  which 
those  elements  must  have  gone  out  from  fallen  man  in 
wild  disorder.  For,  having  flowed  into  a  perverted  and 
depraved  sphere,  they  must  go  out  with  the  character  of 
that  sphere,  the  same  as  pure  light,  flowing  through  a 
discolored  lens,  carries  along  the  color,  and  is  also  changed 
in  its  course  and  influence.  And  as  God  is  dealing  with 
free  and  rational  beings,  and  works  by  means,  we  see  not 
how  any  powers  from  within  can  ever  change  fallen  man 
without  the  written  Law.  Are  we  cited  to  wonderful 
instances  of  influence  of  the  Spirit  upon  men,  and  to  the 
still  small  voice :  it  must  be  remembered  that  those  men 
all  had  some  knowledge  of  the  Divine  Law ;  some  educa- 
tion of  what  was  right  and  what  was  wrong,  as  a  ground 
of  reaction,  whereby  the  Spirit  could  return  upon  the  con- 


THE  NECESSITY   OF  A  DIVINE  REVELATION.  91 

science  and  perform  its  work  of  repentance  upon  a  free 
mind.  Are  we  told  that  the  Spirit  sometimes  moves,  to 
some  extent,  the  heathen  heart  which  has  never  known 
the  Divine  Law  ?  There  are  no  tribes  of  men,  however 
low,  that  have  not,  by  tradition,  some  knowledge  of  what 
is  right  and  just — some  rule  founded,  to  some  extent,  on 
the  Divine  Law,  and  which  has,  at  some  time,  been  given 
by  God,  in  language,  for  the  guidance  of  men.  We  can 
come  to  no  other  rational  conclusion  from  the  facts  before  us. 

Now,  because  the  revealed  "Word  is  necessary  to  all 
success  in  virtue  and  true  knowledge,  we  may  see  the 
reason  of  the  entire  failure  of  all  the  various  experiments 
of  men,  for  the  elevation  of  society  by  their  efforts  to  gain 
a  knowledge  of  spiritual  things,  and  to  build  up  a  religion 
from  internal  influences,  and  loose  impressions  and  sugges- 
tions of  principles  more  in  agreement  with  their  own  de- 
praved desires,  and  which  they  consider  superior  to,  and 
at  variance  with,  the  Bible.  They  therefore  lay  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  aside  as  erroneous.  Thus  they  aim  a 
blow  at  the  very  root  of  all  that  is  virtuous  and  heavenly 
in  families  and  societies;  the  bitter  rewards  of  which 
many  are  reaping ;  while  some  are  beginning  to  see  that 
their  only  hope  of  purity  and  peace  is  a  faithful  return  to 
the  Holy  Word,  and  its  saving  influences ;  seeing  that 
man  can  have  no  other  standard  than  this,  to  show  him 
what  is  true  or  false,  right  or  wrong ;  no  other  ground 
to  judge  of  the  character  and  source  of  his  spiritual  influ- 
ences or  internal  impressions. 

Some  have  thought  that  the  works  of  God,  in  nature, 
can  teach  these  things.  But  as  fallen  man  cannot  draw 
true  ideas  of  the  nature  and  character  of  God  and  His 
laws  from  internal  feelings  and  influences  alone,  so  neither 
can  he  do  it  with  the  aid  of  the  works  of  God.  He  may 


92  THE   NECESSITY   OF    A.   DIVINE   REVELATION. 

examine  the  things  of  nature,  and  also  the  human  family 
on  earth,  as  closely  as  he  pleases,  but  he  can  draw  from 
them  no  true  ideas  of  God,  nor  of  His  qualities,  nor 
of  man's  origin  and  destiny,  without  the  revealed  "Word. 
No  matter  how  strong  the  man's  intellect,  nor  how  active 
and  powerful  his  reasoning  faculties,  nor  how  extensive 
his  other  education,  if  he  is  ignorant  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures, he  can  draw  from  the  world  and  its  inhabitants 
none  but  blind  and  erroneous  ideas  of  the  Being  who 
brought  them  into  existence.  "What,  he  asks,  mean  the 
tempests  and  convulsions,  the  blights  and  mildews  of 
nature;  the  raving  madness  of  her  animals  and  wild 
beasts,  the  poisonous  venom  of  her  reptiles,  and  the 
deceit,  murder,  and  vengeance  of  her  people  ?  Is  this  the 
work  of  an  Infinitely  "Wise  and  Good  Being  ?  Thus  he 
reasons,  until  he  gives  up  all  thought  of  a  Divine  Being, 
and  rests  entirely  on  nature,  as  the  all  in  all. 

Thus  nothing  short  of  a  revealed  written  "Word  can 
give  fallen  man  any  ideas  of  God  ;  and  that  must  reveal 
to  us  His  true  qualities,  or  we  shall  still  be  in  darkness. 
What,  but  a  perfect  blank,  does  the  idea  of  life  amount 
to,  if  we  do  not  know  that  it  is  love  and  real  substance  ? 
How  long  the  learned  have  puzzled  themselves  over  the 
idea  of  life,  and  left  the  subject  as  dark  as  they  found  it 
for  the  want  of  knowing  that  it  was  something  !  But 
when  we  think  of  it  as  Love,  we  have  something  tangible 
in  our  mind  ;  something  that  we  can  feel  to  be  true. 

In  these  reflections,  we  may  be  assured  that  we  can  see 
nothing  in  its  true  light,  unless  our  thought  reaches  back 
to  God  and  rests  on  First  Principles.  "Without  the  great 
truth  that  Love  and  Wisdom  are  substance,  centered  in 
God  and  flowing  into  man,  enabling  him  to  feel,  think, 
and  act,  men  have  supposed  that  thought  and  feeling 


THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   DIVINE   REVELATION.  93 

originate  in  the  brain  of  the  material  body.  And  seeing 
not  that  life  is  received  substance,  all  has  been  dark. 
And  when  they  look  at  nature,  and  behold  her  teeming 
with  life  in  many  varieties,  having  no  idea  of  the  origin, 
substance,  and  quality  of  that  life,  the  same  darkness 
hangs  over  nature.  And  when,  by  the  aid  of  natural 
science,  they  geologically  search  nature  for  the  first  mani- 
festations of  this  life,  and  find  it  in  the  mineral  kingdom, 
in  the  most  feeble  expressions  of  effort  to  produce  vegeta- 
bles, it  seems  to  act  entirely  from  the  rock  as  its  author. 
They  next  see  it  in  higher  and  stronger  forms  in  the  vege- 
tables, still  stronger  in  the  animals,  and  highest  and 
strongest  of  all  in  man.  But  the  higher  things  seem  de- 
pendent upon  the  lower  for  life  and  existence,  and  all 
upon  the  cold  mineral.  Thus  nature  appears  as  everything 
— the  mother  of  all.  But  all  is  total  darkness.  They  see 
not  how  lower  things  can  produce  the  higher ;  the  cold, 
dead  mineral  giving  forth  the  beautiful  vegetable,  with 
delicate  texture  and  velvet  flowers;  and  the  inanimate 
vegetable  giving  forth  the  living  creatures  with  their  five 
senses  of  animal  life ;  and  man  above  all  with  his  sublime 
powers  of  mind  resting  upon  these  inferior  things  for 
origin  and  sustenance.  Alas  !  what  darkness !  But  this 
is  the  best  that  nature  alone  can  do.  Without  a  revealed 
Word  from  God,  man  could  know  nothing  higher  than 
matter.  But  with  the  Holy  Word  before  him,  man  can 
turn  his  thoughts  from  nature  up  to  nature's  God,  and  by 
a  right  knowledge  of  Him,  in  the  substance  and  qualities 
of  the  Trine,  a  flood  of  light  pours  into  his  mind.  He 
sees  the  stream  of  Love,  Wisdom,  and  Power  from  his 
God  flowing  down  through  higher  things  into  lower,  until 
it  reaches  the  mineral  kingdom  as  a  basis  of  reaction,  and 
returning,  produces  the  successive  orders  of  creation,  till 


94:  THE  NECESSITY   OF  A   DIVINE  REVELATION. 

it  is  given  back  to  God  in  the  true  love,  wisdom,  and 
power  of  human  souls.  This  Trine  of  Principles  is  the 
key  of  knowledge.  All  knowledge  is  of  and  from  God. 
It  is  He  that  breaks  the  seals  and  opens  the  Book ;  and 
all  by  this  key  to  a  knowledge  of  His  own  qualities. 
From  these  qualities  we  are  to  judge  of  the  qualities  of 
everything,  seeing  them  more  feebly  or  more  fully  ex- 
pressed in  some  things  than  in  others;  and  either  in 
direct  or  in  inverted  order. 

Thus  we  have,  in  the  revealed  Word,  the  elements 
of  spiritual  life;  and  from  that  "Word  they  must  be 
applied  to  our  souls.  And  as  they  are  principles  of  truth 
and  goodness  for  the  understandings  and  wills  of  men, 
therefore  they  must  be  understood  and  loved  in  order  to 
belong  to  the  mind.  Tims  they  are  principles  that  men 
can  offer,  one  to  another,  through  their  thoughts,  feelings, 
words,  and  actions.  But  we  do  not  lose  a  truth  if  another 
receives  it  from  us  and  lives  it.  It  is  an  endless  principle. 
It  may  be  in  thousands  of  minds  at  the  same  time,  uniting 
them  all  together  and  to  the  Lord,  if  they  love  it.  The 
reason  why  the  order  of  the  reception  of  goods  and  truth 
from  the  Word  is  through  higher  minds  into  lower,  may 
be  readily  seen  from  the  fact  that  no  mind  can  know  a 
truth  until  he  is  taught  it,  nor  can  it  be  his  till  he  loves 
it,  nor  can  he  love  it  till  he  has  practised  it.  And  he 
cannot  be  taught  it  without  a  teacher.  Those  who  have 
the  truth  must  teach  it  to  those  who  have  it  not.  And 
when  we  reflect  upon  the  fact  that  these  Divine  Elements 
arc  for  the  nourishment  and  growth  of  the  souls  of  men, 
we  are  ready  to  ask  ourselves,  how  mind  can  grow  with- 
out something  for  the  understanding  to  receive,  and  the 
will  to  embrace — something  to  supply  the  inquiring  wants 
of  the  reasoning  faculties  and  the  desires  of  the  heart  ? 


THE  NECESSITY   OF   A   DIVINE  REVELATION.  95 

and  also  what  lias  made  the  mind  of  the  man  greater  than 
that  of  the  infant,  unless  it  be  what  he  has  received ;  and 
what  has  made  the  difference  between  the  good  man  and 
the  bad  one,  except  the  goodness  and  truth  with  which 
one  has  been  fed,  and  the  evils  and  falsities  which  have 
fed  the  other  ?  And  seeing  clearly  this  plain  law  of  men- 
tal growth  by  means  of  the  revealed  Word,  the  argument 
for  the  necessity  of  the  "Word  comes  home  with  great 
force,  particularly  when  we  consider  the  fact  that  these 
goods  and  truths,  or  elements  of  life,  in  order  to  be  ration- 
ally received  and  affectionately  embraced  so  as  to  expand 
the  intellect  and  nourish  the  heart,  have  to  be  given  us  in 
laws  or  rules  of  action,  which  the  mind  can  understand, 
see  the  use  of,  and  must  practise,  before  it  can  really 
know  their  value,  love  them,  and  appropriate  them  to  the 
soul.  Thus  God  gives  His  goodness  and  truth  for  our  souls 
in  commandments  and  rules,  for  the  government  of  our 
feelings,  thoughts,  and  actions.  These  "Words,  he  says, 
are  spirit  and  life ;  and  that  if  we  would  enter  into  life, 
we  must  keep  the  commandments.  And  we  enter  into 
life,  or  become  living,  when  the  life  of  the  commandments 
enters  into  us. 

Now,  when  men  see  that  they  were  made  to  act,  and 
that  the  goods  and  truths  of  the  "Word  are  rules  of 
action,  as  well  as  elements  of  life,  and  cannot  be  appro- 
priated to  the  mind  but  by  practising  them,  and  that  God 
is  the  Fountain  of  Truth,  they  will  then  see  that  man 
never  could  have  had  them  without  being  taught  them 
from.  God  in  language.  Hence  the  absolute  necessity  of 
the  written  "Word.  It  was,  therefore,  generally  spoken 
in  an  audible  voice,  in  the  ears  of  most  of  the  prophets, 
and  heard  and  recorded  by  them  verbatim,  as  given  by 
the  Lord.  Thus  they  say  many  times  over,  "  the  Word 


96  THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   DIVINE  REVELATION. 

of  the  Lord  came  unto  me,  saying."  So  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  was  heard  by  Adam  in  the  garden.  True,  some  of 
the  prophets,  and  more  especially  Ezekiel  and  John,  saw 
some  future  events  in  visions.  This  is  because  the 
thoughts  of  the  Lord,  who  knows  all  things,  can  so  flow 
into  a  human  mind  that  is  humble,  confiding,  and  open 
to  receive  them,  as  to  show  that  mind,  for  the  time  being, 
future  things,  when  God  desires  it.  Tims  John  saw  and 
recorded  the  things  mentioned  in  the  Apocalypse,  and  Eze- 
kiel saw  a  certain  state  of  the  "  House  of  Israel,"  or  Jewish 
Church,  in  his  vision  of  dry  bones.  (Ezek.  xxxvii,  1-14.) 

Before  the  "  fall,"  God  taught  men  from  His  Book  of 
Nature,  by  the  Law  of  Analogy.  Therein  was  a  Divine 
Speech,  a  living  language,  as  will  be  shown  in  the  follow- 
ing chapters.  And  'God  therein  taught  man,  intuitively, 
the  great  principles  and  laws  of  life ;  or  man,  by  the  Di- 
vine Truth,  saw  them  in  their  true  light.  But,  during 
the  long  process  of  the  fall,  man,  by  his  depravity,  lost 
the  ability  to  read  the  laws  of  life  in  the  Book  of  Nature. 
Indeed,  Nature  herself  became  changed,  and  had  appar- 
ently a  confused  and  uncertain  speech ;  the  Divine  Law 
of  Analogy  became  above  man's  reach ;  his  spirituality 
was  gone ;  and  God  gave  him,  through  Moses,  the  writ- 
ten Law  in  man's  own  language,  containing  natural  good- 
ness and  truth,  suited  to  man's  state,  but  filled  also  with 
spiritual  goodness  and  truth  to  be  seen  by  analogy.  And 
since  then,  no  people  on  the  earth  have  been  without  some 
truths,  however  dim,  drawn  from  this  written  Law,  and 
handed  down  through  all  time.  For  no  fallen  soul  can  exist 
without  something  from  the  Lord,  as  a  rule  of  action,  that 
would  either  elevate  it  or  check  its  evils,  if  it  would  re- 
gard it ;  and  which  it  is  free  to  do  or  not ;  and  the  Lord, 
from  His  very  qualities,  must  come  to  all  men  with  bless- 


THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   DIVINE   REVELATION.  97 

ings  adapted  to  their  states ;  so  that  those  of  very  little 
light,  who  regard  it,  will  be  better  off  in  the  next  life  than 
those  of  much  light,  who  disregard  it. 

The  laws  of  true  life  were  given,  in  the  command- 
ments, on  Mount  Sinai ;  and  were  spread  out  and  adapted 
to  men's  various  states  throughout  the  "Word.  They  con- 
tain truths  spiritual,  and  truths  natural,  and  even  celes- 
tial. They  are  adapted  to  the  whole  mind,  internal  and 
external,  suited  to  men  and  angels,  to  earth  and  heaven, 
and  even  to  hell.  They  reach  men  in  every  state  and 
condition  of  existence.  Without  them,  no  thought  of 
mental  being,  no  thought  of  a  rational  soul,  no  thought 
of  a  future  life,  no  thought  of  anything  higher  than  mat- 
ter, could  have  ever  again  entered  even  the  imagination 
of  man,  after  he  had  Mien  into  mere  naturalism.  And 
though  man  is  the  Lord's  rational,  intelligent  being,  made 
to  know  His  God,  and  to  love  Him,  and  exist  forever— r 
made  to  learn  and  rationally  to  understand  spiritual 
things ;  yet  these  things,  nothing  short  of  the  Most  High 
God  could  teach.  And  the  instruction  had  to  be  given  to 
man,  in  signs  of  ideas  that  he  could  understand.  It, 
therefore,  had  to  be  given  in  a  written  language,  common 
to  the  race ;  a  language  more  than  internally  spoken  to 
his  consciousness ;  it  had  to  be  addressed  to  his  outward 
senses,  in  audible  phrases,  which  he  could  speak  and  hear 
spoken,  understand,  and  obey. 

And  this  Truth  of  the  written  Word  has  now  become 
the  common  medium  of  spiritual  instruction  and  life  to 
mankind.  And  all  persons,  either  in  this  world  or  the 
other,  who  teach  truths  concerning  the  nature  of  God  or 
of  man,  of  regeneration  or  degeneration,  of  heaven  or  of 
hell,  must  obtain  those  truths,  either  directly  or  by  tradi- 
tion, from  this  Holy  Word. 
5 


98  THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   DIVINE   REVELATION. 

Herein  God  has  given  His  Divine  Truths  a  practical 
form,  in  words  suited  to  all  the  various  states  and  condi- 
tions of  men,  angels,  and  spirits,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  These  truths  are  expressed  in  the  best  possible 
form,  because  given  by  the  Lord  Himself.  This  Holy 
Word,  therefore,  is  The  Mediator  between  the  otherwise 
unapproachable  Jehovah  and  man.  Even  in  the  personal 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  God  manifest,  this  Holy 
Word  was  the  Great  Mediator.  He  spoke  through  it, 
breathed  forth  its  Holy  Spirit,  and  wrought  miracles  by 
its  power.  God  Himself  lives  in  it,  and  by  its  Wisdom 
He  created  the  universe ;  and  it  is  now  spirit  and  life  to 
all  the  universe  of  things.  And,  therefore,  no  man,  angel, 
or  spirit,  either  in  the  flesh  or  out  of  it,  is  a  reliable 
teacher  of  Divine  Truth,  who  does  not  teach  it  from  this 
Divine  Revelation. 

This  is  a  fact,  important  to  be  known  and  regarded,  at 
the  present  day,  that  men  may  not  look,  for  spiritual  wis- 
dom, to  broken  cisterns  that  hold  no  water ;  that  the  tra- 
ditions, of  men  may  not,  in  the  coming  age  of  spiritual 
commotion,  make  the  commandments  of  God  of  none 
effect.  For  the  written  Word  is  the  Great  Rock  of 
Ages,  and  no  new  things  can  ever  supplant,  or  overreach, 
the  Eternal  Wisdom  of  the  Great  Jehovah,  revealed  to 
man  for  his  spiritual  life  both  here  and  hereafter. 

Let  us,  then,  come  to  it  like  little  children  to  their 
father's  table,  for  it  is  Divine  food  for  human  souls. 
Therefore  Jeremiah  saith  to  the  Lord,  "  Thy  Words  were 
found,  and  I  did  eat  them;  and  Thy  Word  was  unto  me 
the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  my  heart ;  for  I  am  called  by  Thy 
name,  O  Lord  God  of  hosts."  (Jer.  xv,  16.)  And  David 
says,  "  The  Words  of  the  Lord  are  pure  Words ;  as  silver 
tried  in  a  furnace  of  earth,  purified  seven  times." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE     REAL      AND     THE     APPARENT. 

WE  are  told,  in  the  Holy  Word,  that  God  is  angry, 
and  that  He  is  Love ;  that  He  is  wrathful,  and  kind ; 
revengeful,  and  merciful ;  provokable,  and  unchange- 
able ;  that  He  repents,  and  repents  not ;  that  He  loved 
Jacob,  and  hated  Esau,  and  that  He  is  no  respecter  of 
persons  /  bat  maketh  His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on 
the  good,  and  sendeth  His  rain  upon  the  just  and  the 
unjust;  that  He  curses  people,  and  punishes  them  ;  and 
that  He  is  kind  unto  the  unthankful  and  the  evil,  and 
that  His  tender  mercies  are  over  all  His  works  ;  that  He 
forms  the  light,  and  creates  darkness ;  makes  peace,  and 
creates  evil.  He  says,  "  Is  there  evil  in  the  city,  and  I 
have  not  done  it  ?  "  thus  plainly  indicating  that  He  does 
all  the  evil  in  the  city.  And  to  complete  the  apparently 
decided  fatality  of  all  things,  the  foreknowledge  of  God 
has  been  understood  by  some  to  pre-order  and  fix  fast 
everything  that  occurs,  whether  of  thought,  feeling,  or 
action ;  and  to  sustain  this  view,  we  are  often  cited  to 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans :  "  Whom  He  did  foreknow, 
He  a*lso  did  predestinate."  .  .  .  "  Whom  He  did  pre- 
destinate, them  He  also  called :  and  whom  He  called, 


100  THE    RF.AT,   AND   THE   APPARENT. 

them  He  also  justified  :  and  whom  He  justified,  them  He 
also  glorified."  "  Therefore  hath  He  mercy  on  whom 
He  will  have  mercy ;  and  whom  He  will  He  hardeneth  ; " 
that  He  "  maketh  one  vessel  to  honor  and  another  to  dis- 
honor." 

Men  hav.e  two  ways  of  receiving  ideas — by  appear- 
ances, and  by  realities.  And  a  glance  at  the  Key  of 
First  Principles,  will  very  soon  decide  which  of  the  above 
characters  of  God  must  be  the  real,  and  which  the  appar- 
ent. And  as  the  Principles  which  constitute  this  Key 
are  Eternal  Axioms,  which  all  Christians  must  admit, 
they  would  throw  much  light  upon  all  the  doctrines  of 
the  Word,  by  distinguishing  between  the  apparent  and 
the  real,  if  men  would  receive  and  use  them.  For  there 
is  a  common  consent  and  agreement,  among  all  Chris- 
tians, to  the  truth  of  the  first  general  view  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Scriptures,  which  teaches  that  there  is  an 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Being  who  created  all  things ;  that 
the  Bible  is  His  revealed  Word ;  that  in  Him  is  a  Trinity, 
called  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit ;  that  He  made  all 
things  good ;  that  man  fell  into  depravity,  and  imparted 
his  sinful  nature  to  his  offspring  ;  that,  to  save  the  fallen 
world,  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  thereby  opened 
up  a  way  of  salvation ;  that,  in  order  to  be  saved,  man 
must  be  regenerated  by  the  Spirit  of  God ;  that,  after 
death,  we  rise  and  go  into  the  spiritual  world,  and  there 
are  judged,  and  are  happy  if  regenerated,  and  unhappy 
if  unregenerated.  These  great  leading  doctrines  God,  in 
His  Holy  Word,  simply  and  clearly  teaches :  and,  as  here 
stated,  they  are  indisputably  true  to  the  very  letter,  and 
the  Christian  world  generally  acknowledge  them  as  here 
expressed.  And  yet  those  very  people  are  divided  into 
hundreds  of  different  sects,  and  are  at  great  variance 


THE  REAL  AND  THE  APPARENT.  101 

upon  the  character  and  quality  of  these  doctrines.  They 
know  them  alike  by  outward  terms,  but  not  by  essential 
principles.  Thus  they  disagree  as  to  what  each  doctrine 
is  in  itself,  and  are  wavering  in  mystery,  between  the 
apparent  and  the  real.  But,  by  the  Key  of  First  Princi- 
ples, as  expressed  in  Chapter  I,  light  may  be  thrown 
upon  all  the  doctrines,  the  apparent  may  be  distinguished 
from  the  real,  and  all  may  be  brought  together  in  har- 
mony, and  the  watchmen  see  eye  to  eye. 

Now,  all  things  have  their  appearances  and  their  reali- 
ties. There  is  truth  as  it  appears,  and  truth  as  it  is ;  the 
literal  sense  of  the  Word  as  it  appears,  and  that  sense  as 
it  is ;  nature  as  it  appears,  and  nature  as  it  is ;  God  as 
He  appears,  in  His  Word  and  works,  and  God  as  He  is. 
And  even  the  appearances  are  various,  depending  alto- 
gether upon  the  states  of  the  observers. 

Nature  and  its  laws  do  not  appear  "to  the  scholar  as 
they  do  to  the  savage.  The  same  forms  of  things  fall 
upon  the  eyes  of  both,  but  they  suggest  very  different 
ideas.  The  savage  sees  them  only  by  the  light  of  the 
sun  ;  the  scholar  has  the  additional  light  of  science.  All 
persons,  at  first,  look  at  nature  as  it  appears.  But,  as 
their  minds  are  educated,  they  lose  thought  of  the  ap- 
pearance and  see  things  more  as  they  are,  rising,  as  they 
progress,  from  the  surface  view  to  scientific  laws. 

And  as  with  God's  works,  so  with  His  Word  ;  here 
too  is  the  apparent  and  the  real.  When  wicked  men  first 
turn  their  thoughts  seriously  toward  moral  and  religious 
things,  they  see  in  the  Word  only  the  low  appearances 
of  God's  character.  Each  man  sees  Him  according  to 
his  state ;  the  angry  man  as  angry ;  the  froward,  as  fro- 
ward  ;  the  upright  man  as  upright ;  the  pure  in  heart,  as 
pure.  Thus  He  seems  to  come,  "  all  things  to  all  men." 


102  TEE  KEAL  AND  THE  APPAKENT. 

Now  it  is  much  better  that  man  should  believe  the 
apparently  hard  things  that  are  written  of  God  than  not 
believe  anything.  When  Galileo  presented  the  solar  sys- 
tem to  men,  the  world,  as  to  astronomy,  was  in  the  shade 
of  appearance,  believing  that  the  sun  daily  revolved 
around  the  earth.  But  this  was  much  better  than  no 
thought  on  the  subject.  It  was  far  above  what  any  animal 
could  think.  And  though  only  an  appearance,  yet  it  was 
truth  to  those  who  could  see  no  higher.  And,  as  such 
minds  are  developed  by  science,  they  will  see  through 
the  appearance  to  the  reality.  And  so  of  spiritual  things. 
We  must  first  have  them  by  appearances.  Men  are  of  all 
qualities,  from  infernal  to  heavenly.  And  God's  Holy 
Word,  in  its  Infinity,  is  adapted  to  all,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest.  In  it,  God  comes  to  men  with  a  disposition 
and  passions  apparently  like  their  own ;  and  of  every 
shade  of  character,  from  the  most  furious  and  wrathful  to 
the  most  gentle  and  merciful.  And  without  so  coming 
He  could  not  reach  all  minds.  For  the  elements  of  one 
mind  cannot  flow  into  another  by  outward  instructions, 
without  a  medium  or  language  for  ideas  adapted  to  their 
states.  That  medium,  for  the  lowest  and  most  vile  peo- 
ple, is  the  "  teiTor  of  the  Law  "  in  the  literal  and  appar- 
ent sense. 

Now  it  is  much  better  that  the  Lord  should  appear  to 
•a  very  wicked,  perverse,  and  ignorant  people  as  an  al- 
mighty, wrathful,  vengeance-taking  God,  than  as  all- 
merciful  and  forgiving.  For,  as  they  are  taught  from 
infancy  to  fear  this  terrible  Being,  this  character  has  a 
powerful  influence  over  their  conduct,  in  restraining  them 
from  vice.  Such  an  apparent  idea  of  God  can  reach  and 
influence  them  when  a  real  one  could  not  be  seen,  and 
would  not  be  feared  if  it  could  be  seen.  And  all  the 


THE  KEAL  AND  THE  APPARENT.  103 

scripture  which  so  represents  God  is  mercifully  given  for 
the  use  and  benefit  of  all  such  barbarous  and  cruel  minds. 
The  world  has  had  its  ages  of  such  benighted  ignorance 
and  tyranny.  And  it  has  its  nations  now,  to  whom  such 
teachings  are  a  blessing. 

And,  in  the  ages  of  great  sin  and  ignorance,  even  a  lake 
of  fire  and  brimstone,'  apparently  prepared  by  the  Lord  to 
torment  wicked  souls  in  forever,  has  been  a  blessing,  just 
so  far  as  it  has  restrained  from  sin,  held  evils  in  check,  anil 
caused  men  to  keep  the  commandments.  And  with  a  peo- 
ple in  a  state  of  blind  superstition,  and  fear  of  an  awful 
unknown  Power,  this  dreadful  doctrine  would  have  that 
influence,  when  nothing  else  would  do  it.  And  now, 
when  we  see  the  real,  spiritual  truth  of  this  doctrine,  and 
find  that  that  burning  lake  is  no  fiction,  but  a  dreadful 
reality,  coining  not  from  God,  but  from  the  transgression 
of  His  laws,  and  located  in  our  own  souls,  if  we  are  evil, 
and  that  it  will  torment  us  with  the  fires  of  hatred,  re- 
venge, jealousy,  and  ill  will  forever,  unless  removed  by 
repentance  and  a  good  life  ;  I  say,  when  we  see  this,  the 
same  Holy  Scripture  may  bless  us  also,  and  save  our  souls. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  Infinite  Word  of  God  is  suited  to 
all  ages  of  the  world  and  to  all  peoples  :  not  only  to  the 
patriarchs,  the  Israelites,  and  the  first  Christians,  but  also 
to  those  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  glorious  light  of  which 
is  now  dawning  upon  the  world ;  and  if  we  apply  it  to 
our  hearts  and  lives,  it  will  lead  our  souls  into  the  para- 
dise of  God. 

But,  it  is  asked,  Is  not  this  using  deception,  by  mak- 
ing God  to  appear  what  He  is  not  ?  When  those  scrip- 
ures  are  properly  considered,  there  will  be  seen  nothing 
false  in  their  expressions.  It  is  not  a  falsity  that  the  sun 
appears  to  revolve  round  the  earth,  or  the  grass  to  look 


104          THE  REAL  AND  THE  APPARENT. 

green,  or  the  snow  white.  These  things  are  truths  to  a 
mind  that  can  look  no  higher,  though  science  speaks  fur- 
ther to  others.  Every  man  must  judge  of  things  accord- 
ing to  his  state.  All  men  must  think  and  judge  of  God, 
not  as  He  is,  in  His  Infinity,  but  as  He  manifests  Him- 
self to  them  in  His  Word. 

The  bad  man,  therefore,  sees  God  in  the  apparent 
truth  of  His  Word  as  acting  against  thieves,  murderers, 
and  robbers,  for  breaking  His  Law,  just  as  he  hiihself 
would  act  against  them  if  they  had  trespassed  against 
him.  He  looks  upon  the  Law  as  just.  And  when  cir- 
cumstances bring  him  under  the  influence  of  God's  Spirit, 
lie  is  afraid  to  break  the  Law.  And  upon  this  ground  he 
can  commence  the  work  of  repentance  and  regeneration, 
when  otherwise  he  could  not  be  reached. 

And  when  it  is  seen  that  all  the  power  in  man  to  do 
either  right  or  wrong  is  not  man's  power,  but  God's,  con- 
stantly given  him,  and  that  man  is  free  to  use  it,  either 
for  good  or  for  evil,  the  apparent  truth  is  that  God  hard- 
ens men's  hearts,  and  blinds  their  eyes,  and  creates  their 
evils,  and  torments  them,  and  sends  them  to  hell,  because 
it  is  done  through  God's  power.  In  this  apparent  light 
it  is  that  God,  in  order  to  reach  the  low  states  of  the 
wicked,  is  said  in  Scripture  to  do  these  things :  whereas 
the  reality  is  that  men,  by  the  abuse  of  God's  power  and 
their  own  freedom,  run  into  vice  and  iniquity.  Thus,  by 
sin,  they  harden  their  own  hearts,  blind  their  own  eyes, 
create  their  own  evils,  torment  themselves,  and  send  them- 
selves to  hell,  when  they  have  full  power  and  privilege 
given  them  to  take  the  other  course.  Indeed,  the  human 
heart  is  not  unconscious  of  its  freedom  and  responsibility 
to  the  truth. 

And  as  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God,  binding  the  des- 


THE  EEAL  AND  THE  APPARENT.  105 

tinies  of  men  to  an  unalterable  course  of  life,  this  is  also 
apparent.  God,  being  Infinite  in  Wisdom,  must  know 
all  tilings  at  once.  Foreknowledge  with  Him,  therefore, 
must  be  the  same  as  afterknowledge,  and  thus  does  not 
interfere  with  the  freedom  of  man.  It  would  be  absurd 
to  suppose  that  the  knowledge  we  of  this  age  have  of  the 
American  Revolution  was  the  means  of  its  success,  or  was 
in  any  way  connected  with  it.  But  it  has  just  as  much 
to  do  with  it  as  our  foreknowledge  would  have  with  the 
laying  of  the  Atlantic  cable,  it  we  could  see  that  it  would 
be  successfully  done  in  two  years.  Simple  knowledge  of 
events,  whether  present,  past,  or  future,  does  not  neces- 
sarily affect  the  events  at  all. 

God  made  man  free,  and  therefore  His  knowledge  of 
his  acts  cannot  affect  or  destroy  that  freedom.  For, 
though  He  knew  that  a  man  would  sin,  yet  He  also  knew 
that  he  could  do  better,  or  else  His  commandments  are 
not  binding.  And  the  declaration,  "  Whom  He  did  fore- 
know He  also  did  predestinate,"  does  not  at  all  affect  the 
matter,  or  reach  man's  freedom.  For  predestination  is 
only  the  decision  of  a  general  law,  showing  that  certain 
effects  must  follow  certain  causes ;  that  misery  must  fol- 
low the  transgression  of  the  laws  of  either  moral  or  phys- 
ical life,  and  happiness  must  be  the  result  of  obedience,  so 
that  the  predestination  rests  entirely  upon  the  life  lived. 
The  freedom  of  man,  therefore,  is  the  grand  pivot  upon 
which  he  turns  either  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left,  and 
thus  he  determines  his  own  destiny. 

Now,  there  are  everywhere,  throughout  the  entire 
Word  and  works  of  God,  two  scenes,  the  apparent  and 
the  real.  The  Lord's  written  language  always  paints  two 
scenes,  or  one  scene  with  two  sides — an  inside  and  an 
outside.  It  is  declared  in  Scripture  that  the  Word  is 
5* 


106  THE  KEAL  AND  THE  APPARENT. 

"  written  within  and  on  the  back  side."  Now,  we  cannot 
see  the  beauty  of  the  outside  scene,  unless  it  be  made 
transparent  by  the  light  which  shines  upon  the  inside ; 
giving  us,  at  the  same  time,  a  view  of  the  inside  picture 
in  and  through  the  outside  one,  by  analogy.  The  outside 
picture  or  literal  sense  is  seen  as  a  lower  light,  like  moon- 
light compared  with  the  real  light.  This  lower  light 
gives  many  simple  and  plain  commandments,  and  teaches 
many  important  duties  ;  and  it  directs  the  soul  to  higher 
things. 

This  is  all  the  light  man  can  at  first  bear  from  the 
Holy  "Word.  But,  in  man's  fallen  state,  this  light  cannot 
bring  out  the  clear,  distinct  features  and  qualities  of  even 
the  outside  picture,  so  as  to  show  its  true  designs,  and  its 
full  symmetry  and  beauty.  Indeed,  as  we  examine  it 
closely  in  that  light  only,  we  perceive  much  irregularity 
and  confusion,  and  are  left  in  much  uncertainty  as  to 
what  the  picture,  as  a  whole,  is  intended  to  represent. 
But  when,  by  analogy,  the  inner  light  shines  through  it, 
it  infills  and  blends  with  the  lower  light,  and  the  two 
scenes  become  one.  The  inside  scene,  with  its  real  light, 
now  fills  up  and  supplies  all  the  apparent  deficiencies  of 
the  outside  one.  All  the  dark  places,  deformities,  strange 
objects,  and  mysterious  characters,  which  were  scattered 
more  or  less  throughout  the  whole  view,  are  now  brought 
out  in  new  light,  and  in  great  perfection  and  beauty. 

This  Divine  picture,  as  seen  upon  the  inside,  is  a  view 
of  spiritual  things,  or  things  of  the  mind ;  but  as  seen 
only  upon  the  outside,  without  the  spiritual  light,  it  is  a 
view  of  natural  things,  as  seen  in  the  light  of  the  literal 
sense,  which  is  often  only  apparent  and  contradictory. 
Thus  the  Holy  Word  has  its  earth-side  and  its  heaven- 
side,  or  its  apparent  and  its  real;  just  as  man  has  his 


THE  REAL  AND  THE  APPARENT.  107 

earth-side  or  natural  mind  and  body,  and  his  heaven -side 
or  spiritual  mind  and  body.  Therefore,  when  we  look  at 
the  "Word  upon  its  earth-side  only,  and  from  the  earth- 
side  of  our  mind,  we  do  not  see  the  scene  as  it  really  is, 
but  only  as  it  appears  to  our  selfish,  external  man.  Con- 
sequently, many  parts  of  it  appear  dark  and  indistinct ; 
and  some  portions  seem  distorted  and  ugly,  with  things 
out  of  place  and  upside  down.  And  thence  we  begin  to 
doubt  its  being  a  scene  drawn  entirely  by  a  Divine  pen- 
cil, in  the  hand  of  an  Infinite  Artist. 

But  the  difficulty  is  all  in  ourselves.  The  mental  po- 
sition or  state  in  which  we  stand  to  view  it,  darkens  and 
distorts  our  vision.  The  selfish  and  ignorant  mental 
sphere  which  surrounds  us,  and  through  which  we  are 
looking,  gives  its  own  false  coloring  to  the  Divine  "Word. 

But  let  our  understandings  be  once  open  to  the  spir- 
itual sense,  so  as  to  let  in  upon  our  natural  mind,  by  an- 
alogy, the  heavenly  light  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  and 
the  fogs  of  our  mental  earth  will  soon  disappear.  And 
then  even  the  earth-side  of  the  Holy  Word  will  be  bright 
and  beautiful. 

Now,  as  before  suggested,  it  is  precisely  so  with  God's 
Book  of  Nature,  but  on  a  lower  plane  of  thought.  The 
untutored  savage,  standing,  as  he  believes,  on  the  immov- 
able, flat  earth  in  the  centre  of  creation,  sees  the  lamps 
and  torches  of  the  heavens  revolving  around  him  in  pano- 
ramic order ;  while  a  new  and  sublime  scene  passes  before 
the  learned,  filling  his  soul  with  rational  wonder  and  ad- 
miration. The  first  of  these  is  a  natural  scene,  viewed 
with  the  eyes  of  the  body,  in  natural  light.  The  second 
is  a  mental  scene,  viewed  by  the  eye  of  the  mind  in  the 
light  of  science.  If,  then,  the  two  scenes  in  God's  Book 
of  Nature  are  so  completely  unlike  in  aspect,  magnitude, 


10S  THE  REAL  AND  THE  APPARENT. 

and  fact ;  if  the  view  becomes  so  vastly  changed  in  beauty 
and  grandeur,  by  the  aid  of  'only  the  light  of  natural 
science ;  what  must  be  the  change  of  scenes  in  God's 
Book  of  Revelation,  when  we  can  look  above  and  beyond 
all  the  clouds  of  appearances,  and  view  it  in  the  pure 
light  of  spiritual  science — the  science  of  the  soul — the 
science  of  thoughts  and  feelings — the  science  of  spiritual 
substance,  of  spiritual  heat  and  light,  of  spiritual  attrac- 
tion and  repulsion ;  and,  indeed,  when  we  can  have  a 
rational  conception  and  knowledge  of  the  Science  of 
Causes,  and,  to  some  extent,  of  God  Himself,  the  Cause 
of  all  causes,  and  in  the  light  of  His  Divine  "Wisdom  can 
look  down  upon  Nature,  and  see  her,  with  all  her  appar- 
ent laws  of  gravitation,  motion,  heat,  light,  and  produc- 
tion, to  be  but  the  mere  blind  and  unconscious  effect  of 
the  higher,  the  spiritual  principles  and  laws,  and  as  hav- 
ing existence,  life,  light,  and  action,  only  in  and  by  the 
constant  influx  of  these  spiritual  principles,  as  they  flow 
from  the  Divine  Fountain  ? 

To  come  into  the  blessed  enjoyment  of  this  Spiritual 
Light  and  Life  is  now  the  privilege  of  fallen  humanity. 


CHAPTEE    X. 


THE  SPIRITUAL  AND  NATURAL  SENSES  OF  THE  WORD: 
THE  SPIRITUAL  AND   NATURAL  MINDS  OF  MAN: 
THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  WORD  INTO  HUMAN  MINDS. 

IN  order  to  bring  out  the  Spiritual  Sense  of  the 
Word,  by  analogy,  so  that  its  principles  may  be  rationally 
understood,  and  its  importance  appreciated,  it  will  be 
necessary,  first,  to  obtain  clear  ideas  of  the  elements  of 
that  spiritual  sense,  and  of  the  way  those  elements  are  to 
reach  and  affect  the  human  mind.  For,  to  look  with 
facility  for  a  mental  thing  that  we  have  not  got,  we  must 
have  some  idea  of  its  qualities,  and  also  of  its  application 
to  us.  Although  these  qualities  have  been  frequently 
mentioned,  yet  they  should  be  more  specifically  consid- 
ered. 

And  we  will  open  the  subject  by  stating  that  the  Spir- 
itual Sense  of  the  Word,  which  men  now  receive,  is  the 
Lord,  at  His  second  coming :  that  He  comes  as  the  ele- 
ments of  life,  and  that  human  minds  are,  therefore,  the 
recipients. 

But  as  the  Word  has  a  natural,  as  well  as  a  spiritual 
sense,  so  also  the  human  mind,  which  receives  it,  has  a 
natural  plane,  and  a  spiritual  plane,  in  each  of  which, 


110  THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD. 

there  is  a  will  and  an  understanding.  These  planes  are 
called,  in  Scripture,  the  internal  and  the  external,  or  the 
spiritual  and  the  natural  man,  or  mind.  By  the  spiritual 
mind,  we  have  communion  with  spiritual  things ;  we  think 
of  God  and  heaven,  virtue  and  holiness.  By  the  natural 
mind,  we  have  connection,  through  the  body,  with  natural 
things,  and  think  of  the  world,  and  its  attractions.  These 
two  minds  are  often  at  variance ;  and  we  find  ourselves 
halting  between  two  opinions ;  one  mind  inviting  us  to 
sin,  and  the  other  prompting  us  to  virtue.  And  when  we 
enter  our  closet  for  self-examination,  we  often  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  the  thoughts,  feelings,  and  actions  of  the  natural 
man,  and  decide  against  them.  Now  this  cannot  be  done 
by  the  same  will  and  understanding  that  had  been  astray. 
For  the  same  mind  cannot  be  bad  one  moment  and  good 
the  next. 

Now,  the  external  mind  is  first  formed  and  developed 
through  the  means  of  the  senses  ;  it  is  natural  and  world- 
ly ;  the  internal  mind  is  afterward  formed  by  religious 
education  and  heavenly  influences.  The  whole  process  of 
regeneration  is  a  warfare  between  these  two  minds :  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  and  heavenly  influences,  sustaining  the 
internal  mind,  and  the  temptations  of  the  world,  and  evil 
influences,  exciting  the  external  mind. 

These  views  of  man's  mind  will  introduce  us  to  a  true 
idea  of  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  while  in  the  flesh ;  and 
which  we  will  illustrate  by  comparing  the  Infant  in  the 
manger  with  another  infant :  the  first  we  will  call  Divine, 
and  the  second,  human.  The  human  infant  had  a  natural 
father ;  the  Divine  had  not.  The  human  was  a  recipient 
of  life ;  the  Divine  had  self-existent  Life,  which  was  the 
Father.  Not  that  God  was  limited,  as  to  space.  He  was 
the  Omnipresent  Life  of  the  universe.  And  yet  there  is 


THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD.  Ill 

nothing  unreasonable,  or  contradictory  to  Divine  Laws,  in 
His  thus  assuming  our  nature.  He,  who  is  the  Life  of  the 
universe,  could  certainly  assume  a  human  mind — the  high- 
est order  of  His  creation.  And  there  is  no  more  mystery 
in  it  than  in  any  other  Divine  act.  It  is  just  what  might 
be  expected  from  Infinite  Mercy,  if  He  could  thereby  bet- 
ter reach  and  influence  our  free  minds. 

This  Divine  Infant  had,  from  Mary,  besides  the  natural 
body,  an  external  plane  of  the  mind,  with  a  will  and  un- 
derstanding like  those  of  any  other  infant.  And  though 
the  self-existent  Life  of  the  Father  within,  was  Almighty, 
and  One  with  the  universal  Life — :yet  before  the  assumed 
mind  and  nature  could  become  a  medium  of  .that  life  to 
man,  they  must  be  developed  through  the  natural  senses 
like  those  of  any  other  infant.  Thus  the  assumed  natural 
body  and  mind  grew  up  in  the  world,  with  a  nature  like 
ours,  "  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are."  And  when 
He  spoke  from  the  natural  mind,  He  prayed  to  the  Father, 
spoke  of  His  inferiority  to  the  Father,  and  said  the  Father 
within  Him  did  the  "Works.  But  when  He  spoke  from 
His  Spiritual  Mind,  He  declared  His  equality  by  saying, 
He  and  the  Father  were  One :  that  He  was  the  First  and 
the  Last,  with  all  Power  in  heaven  and  on  earth. 

Now,  the  Word  clearly  teaches,  that  the  object  of  this 
second  coming  of  the  Lord  is  to  establish  His  kingdom  on 
earth :  that  that  kingdom  is  His  church :  and  that,  in 
that  'kingdom,  He  is  to  wipe  away  all  tears  from  men's 
eyes ;  and  they  are  to  be  His  people,  and  He  Himself  is 
to  be  with  them,  their  God.  And  that  church,  which  He 
is  to  establish,  is  denominated  the  New  Jerusalem,  which 
is  to  come  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a 
bride  adorned  for  her  husband.  It  is  declared,  in  Revela- 
tion, that  His  name,  at  His  second  coming,  should  be 


112  THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD. 

called  "  the  Wwd  of  God."  At  His  first  coming,  He 
came  as  the  Word,  which  was  in  the  beginning  with  God, 
and  which  was  God  ;  and  that  Word  was  manifest  in  the 
flesh,  and  came  a  Light  into  the  world,  or  the  Truth  into 
the  human  mind. 

Therefore,  though  He  comes  again  as  the  mighty  God 
— Father,  Son  and  Holy  Spirit, — yet,  the  feature  which 
He  presents  is  the  Word,  or  the  Spiritual  Truths  >  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  The  higher  elements  of  His  nature 
can  only  be  approached  through  the  Word  of  Truth — the 
Father  can  be  found  only  in  the  Son — the  Goodness  only 
in  the  Truth.  Therefore,  God  Himself  comes  to  men,  as 
the  Word.  He  came  the  first  time,  as  the  Word,  in  the 
literal  sense.  He  comes  the  second  time,  as  the  Word,  in 
the  spiritual  sense.  True,  there  was  an  assumed  finite 
nature  and  body,  like  ours.  But  they  were  not  the  Lord 
— the  Mighty  God.  They  were  assumed  only  as  a  means 
of  bringing  the  Word,  which  in  the  beginning  was  with 
God  and  was  God,  down  to  man's  fallen  state ;  that  we 
might  have  the  Light  of  Life— the  Spirit  of  Truth— and 
become  regenerated. 

But,  let  us  seek  a  true  idea  of  the  Lord's  coming  and 
going.  Where  can  He,  who  is  Omnipresent,  come  from, 
or  go  to  ?  Certainly  nowhere,  as  to  space.  There  can 
nothing  exist,  in  which  He  is  not,  in  some  sense,  present. 
And  there  can  be  no  coming  or  going,  between  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  in  God.  The  Father  is  God's  Love,  and  the 
Son  is  the  Word  or  Truth,  which  that  Love  speaks.  They 
are  always  together.  Could  they  be  separated,  they  would 
both  be  finite — neither  of  them  would  be  Omnipresent. 

What,  then,  is  the  coming  and  going  of  the  Most  High 
God  ?  It  is  simply  the  receiving  and  the  losing  of  the 
Love  and  Wisdom*  of  God,  by  the  mind  of  mail.  All 


THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LOKD.  113 

coming  and  going,  of  the  Lord,  have  regard  solely  to 
the  mind  of  man.  The  mind,  that  does  not  see  and  love 
the  Truth  of  the  Word,  has  not  God  in  the  understanding 
and  affections.  Yet,  God,  by  influx,  is  really  in  that  per- 
son, as  his  life,  although  that  man  does  not  receive  Him 
into  his  thoughts  and  feelings.  He  is  not  with  him  ration- 
ally, affectionately,  or  reciprocally.  Therefore,  all  God's 
coming  and  going  is  into,  and  out  of,  the  affections  of 
man.  And  this  is  done  by  man's  loving  the  Truth,  and 
rejecting  it.  The  coining  and  going  is,  therefore,  all  on 
man's  part,  not  at  all  on  God's.  Thus,  by  the  "  fall,"  we 
lose  God  ;  that  is,  we  lose  the  love  of  Goodness  and  Truth 
— the  Lord  is  gone  from  the  mind.  But,  by  regenera- 
tion, He  comes  again — those  elements  of  His  nature  are 
received  into  the  understanding  and  will.  It  is  because 
man  has  freedom  and  rationality,  that  God  can  thus  come 
and  go.  He  comes  and  goes  as  to  nothing  else  in  the 
universe  but  the  mind  of  man. 

And,  when  the  Lord  thus  comes  and  goes,  it  seems,  by 
some  of  the  literal  expressions  of  the  Word,  as  though  He 
left  the  Father  and  returned  to  Him.  Thus  He  says,  "  I 
came  forth  from  the  Father,  and  am  come  into  the  world : 
again,  I  leave  the  world,  and  go  to  the  Father."  But  the 
Father  Principle,  in  God,  being  the  Divine  Love,  and  the 
Son  Principle,  the  Divine  Truth  or  Word,  we  see  thfot 
from  love  to  man,  and  a  desire  to  instruct  him  and  bless 
him,  God  speaks,  or  gives  forth  the  Truth,  from  His  affec- 
tions. Thus  the  Son  comes  forth  from  the  Father.  God, 
as  Love,  sends  forth  the  Truth,  or  Word,  into  the  world  ; 
but  the  Father  comes  in  it.  And  when  the  human  mind 
sees  and  receives  that  Truth,  the  Word  comes  into  the 
mental  world — the  mind  of  man.  And  when  man  de- 
clines into  evil  and  loses  his  love  for  that  Truth,  and  deals 


114  THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LOKD. 

in  falsities,  that  Truth  is  said  to  leave  the  world ;  and 
whenever  it  ascends  above  man's  comprehension,  it  is  said 
to  go  to  the  Father. 

That  Truth  says  to  man,  "  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door 
and  knock."  Thus  the  Lord,  as  the  Word  or  the  Truth, 
wants  to  get  into  man's  affections.  Man's  understanding 
is  the  door  to  his  will.  The  Truth  addresses  itself  to  the 
rational  faculty,  saying,  It  is  wrong  to  steal,  lie,-  covet, 
murder.  Do  you  not  see  that  it  makes  the  world  miser- 
able and  wretched  to  do  these  things  ?  In  this,  the  Lord 
is  standing  at  the  door  and  knocking  ;  and  man's  yielding 
his  will  to  that  Truth,  and  obeying  it,  is  what  is  meant  by 
his  hearing  the  Lord's  voice  and  opening  the  door.  And, 
as  he  loves  the  Truth,  he  sups  with  the  Lord,  by  drinking 
that  Truth  into  his  soul.  And,  as  he  gives  his  affections 
to  God,  acknowledging,  with  gratitude,  the  Truth,  the 
Lord  sups  with  him. 

Thus  the  Lord  comes  into  the  world — the  mental 
world.  And  thus  the  Lord,  as  the  Word,  came  into  the 
assumed  mind — the  mind  received  from  Mary.  For, 
although  the  Father,  or  the  Divine  Love,  is  the  inmost 
Life  and  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  flesh  ;  yet,  as  we 
have  said,  the  natural  plane  of  the  mind,  which  He  re- 
ceived from  Mary,  was  a  little  empire  of  itself,  as  it  were ; 
with  will  and  understanding,  freedom  and  rationality,  re- 
ceiving life  and  power,  from  God,  to  act,  in  perfect  free- 
dom, the  same  as  any  other  external  human  mind.  And 
the  Truth  of  the  "Word,  from  the  Father,  met  that  mind 
from  without,  in  the  Bible,  the  same  as  it  meets  any  other 
mind.  It  stood  at  the  understanding,  or  door  of  that 
assumed  human  nature,  and  knocked.  And  that  nature 
heard  the  voice,  and  opened  the  door ;  and  the  Lord,  as 
the  Word,  came  in  and  supped  with  that  nature,  and  that 


THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD.  115 

nature  with  the  Word.  Thus  that  assumed  nature  re- 
ceived the  Truth  through  the  written  Word,  and  acknowl- 
edged the  Father  as  its  Author,  while  the  Father  was  still 
within  it.  But  as  the  Lord  glorified  His  assumed  human- 
•ity,  by  putting  off  everything  finite,  received  from  Mary, 
and  putting  the  Infinite,  from  the  Father,  in  its  place, 
there  could  be  nothing  material,  or  finite,  about  the  Lord, 
when  He  returned  to  the  Father,  or  ascended  into  His 
Divinity,  out  of  the  spiritual  sight  of  the  disciples.  There- 
fore, we  are  taught,  in  the  Gospel,  that  that  only  ascended 
up  into  heaven  which  came  down  from  heaven,  even  the 
Son  of  Man  which  is  in  heaven.  The  Great  Jehovah, 
therefore,  did  not  add  to  Himself,  by  the  assumption  of 
our  nature.  Infinity  cannot  be  increased.  He  only 
brought  Himself  nearer  to  us,  by  descending  into  the 
natural  plane  of  human  life,  and  giving  us  the  Gospelm 
that  plane ;  and  then,  by  putting  off  the  finite,  He  re- 
turned into  the  Infinite  with  the  glorified  natural,  but 
Infinite,  Humanity.  And  thus,  having  that  Infinite, 
Glorified  Humanity,  He  could  give  the  Holy  Spirit,  or 
send  forth  the  Comforter,  so  as  £o  reach  fallen  man,  after 
the  ascension.  For  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word,  like  the 
assumed  Humanity,  is  filled  with  that  Spirit ;  and  through 
that  Word  comes  the  Comforter.  For,  in  the  ascension, 
the  Lord  became,  more  fully,  the  Spirit  and  Life  of  the 
Word  to  man. 

Thus  the  Word  now  becomes  the  Mediator,  to  those 
who  receive  it,  the  same  as  the  assumed  human  nature 
became  it,  at  His  first  coming  ;  the  letters  and  words  an- 
swering to  the  material  body  ;  the  literal  sense  being  in 
man's  language,  answering  to  the  finite  sphere  of  the  as- 
sumed mind  ;  and  the  spiritual  sense,  to  the  Divine  Mind, 
within  the  assumed.  Therefore,  after  the  Lord's  ascen- 


116  THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD. 

sion,  the  written  "Word  became  the  obvious  Mediator, 
through  which  the  Comforter  could  be  sent,  from  the 
Father,  to  man.  For  the  Word,  in  its  Spirit  and  Life,  is 
the  Manifested  Lord,  sending  forth  the  Holy  Spirit  to  all 
who  faithfully  seek  the  Lord,  in  the  Goods  and  Truths  of 
that  Word. 

But  when,  in  the  process  of  time,  "  the  traditions  of 
men  had  made  the  commandments  of  God  of  none  effect," 
and  they  sought  salvation,  by  faith  in  the  Lord,  out  of  the 
Word,  and  away  off,  in  some  distant  aerial  region  called 
heaven ;  then,  a  true  knowledge  of  the  Lord  was  gradu- 
ally lost ;  and  it  became  necessary  that  He  should  make  a 
Second  Coming.  This  second  coming  was  prophetically 
announced  by  the  Lord  Himself.  And  now,  if  we  bear 
in  mind  that  the  Lord's  coming  or  going  is,  always,  into, 
or  out  of,  the  mind  of  man,  and  nowhere  else  ;  and  that  it 
is. simply  receiving  or  losing  the  knowledge  and  love  of 
Him  ;  and  that  this  coming  and  going  must  always  be  the 
Word  of  Truth  and  Life  into,  and  out  of,  man's  will  and 
understanding,  we  shall  then  see  that  the  world  of  man- 
kind must  have  lost  a  true  knowledge  of  Him,  and  of  the 
doctrines  of  His  Word,  or  He  would  not  have  been  absent 
from  men ;  and,  therefore,  could  not  have  made  an  advent. 
He  could  not  come  where  He  already  was.  And,  as  His 
First  Coming,  into  men's  minds,  was  by  a  New  Birth  of 
the  Truth,  received  into  their  wills,  and  given  forth  into 
life,  by  means  of  regeneration  :  so,  also,  must  be  His  Sec- 
ond Coming.  No  men  really  knew  the  Lord,  at  His  first 
coming,  but  those  who  received  His  Spirit  of  Truth  and 
Love,  through  the  new  birth.  He  made  no  other  first 
coming  to  men  than  into  their  souls.  True,  before  coming 
into  their  souls,  He  took  our  fallen  nature,  and  brought 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  and  Love,  Infinitely  into  that,  by 


THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD.  117 

Glorification.  But  this  work  would  do  men  no  good,  if 
He  could  not,  thereby,  approach  and  enter  their  minds. 
Thus  His  first  coming,  to  men,  was  into  their  souls,  as  the 
Word  of  Goodness  and  Truth,  received  into  their  wills 
and  understandings,  by  regeneration.  And  precisely  so, 
is  His  second  coming. 

Now,  it  is  prophetically  declared,  in  Matthew  (24th 
chapter),  that  the  world  would  lose  all  knowledge  of  the 
Lord,  and  become  so  wicked,  in  His  absence,  that  no  flesh 
could  be  saved  without  a  second  coming.  This  shows  that 
there  would  come  a  dark,  selfish,  unregenerate  state  of  the 
world — a  state  without  a  true  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  or 
of  the  doctrines  of  His  Word.  And  it  must  be  into  the 
world,  in  such  a  state,  that  the  Lord  makes  His  Second 
Coming.  For,  when  the  world  is  not  in  that  dark  state, 
the  Lord  is  already  there.  He  is  present  with  every 
mind,  where  the  truths  of  His  Word  are  seen  and  loved  ; 
and  absent  from  every  mind,  where  they  are  not.  Thus 
He  comes,  as  the  lightning  cometh  out  of  the  East  and 
shineth  even  unto  the  West. 

Herein  we  see  that  the  second  coming  of  the  Lord  is 
like  the  first.  For  His  first  coming,  as  declared  in  the 
first  chapter  of  John,  was  "a  Light  into  the  world"  He 
came  as  the  Word  of  Truth,  which  was  in  the  beginning 
with  God  and  was  God.  And  it  is  declared,  in  the  Apo- 
calypse, that,  at  His  second  coming,  His  name  should  be 
called  "  The  Word  of  God."  His  first  coming  was  called 
"  The  true  Light,  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world"  He  is  the  "  Sun  of  Righteousness  "  for  the 
human  soul — the  true  spiritual  light  and  life  of  all  that 
will  receive  Him.  His  second  coming  is  of  a  higher  order 
than  the  first,  and  is  suited  to  the  scientifically  advanced 
state  of  the  world.  He  comes  now,  not  only  as  the  Liter- 


118  THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD. 

al,  but  also  the  Spiritual  Truth  of  the  "Word.  He  now 
comes  as  the  "Word  in  its  fulness,  opening  to  us  the  nature 
of  the  spiritual  world  and  the  laws  of  our  spiritual  being, 
by  opening  the  Holy  "Word,  and  revealing  its  Spiritual 
Sense ;  and  giving  a  clear,  rational,  full  and  consistent 
view  of  the  literal  sense,  and  showing  the  perfect  unity 
and  harmony  between  the  two  senses. 

Here  the  reader  may  ask  what  we  have  to  say  about 
the  resurrection  and  the  judgment,  which  the  Bible  teaches 
will  take  place  when  the  Lord  shall  make  His  second  ad- 
vent ?  We  answer,  This  is  precisely  what  the  Spiritual 
Sense  of  the  Word  is  coming  for.  Many  men,  in  this  age, 
are  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  who  cannot  be  raised  from 
this  death,  without  the  coming  of  the  Spiritual  Light  of 
the  Word,  to  their  souls,  for  Judgment.  Nothing  else 
will  reach  their  head  and  their  heart.  Besides,  the  Lord 
never  comes  to  men,  but  in  judgment ;  and  man  can  never 
be  blessed,  but  in  judgment.  When  man  does  not  need 
judging,  the  Lord  is  with  him.  Therefore  judgments  are 
mentioned  as  blessings.  The  Psalmist  sings,  "  Arise, 
O  Lord,  judge  the  earth."  "  The  judgments  of  the  Lord 
are  true  and  righteous  altogether."  "  Let  Zion  rejoice  and 
the  daughter  of  Judah  be  glad,  because  of  Thy  judg- 
ments." "  I  will  praise  Thee  with  righteousness  of  heart, 
when  I  shall  have  learned  Thy  judgments."  "  My  soul 
breaketh  for  the  longing  it  hath  for  Thy  judgments,  at  all 
times."  u  At  midnight  I  will  arise  and  give  thanks,  be- 
cause of  Thy  judgments."  "  When  Thy  judgments  are 
in  the  earth  the  inhabitants  will  learn  righteousness/' 

It  is  true,  there  is  another  feature  to  the  judgment, 
when  it  says,  "  the  ungodly  shall  not  stand  in  the  judg- 
ment ; "  and  that  God  will  execute  judgment  upon  the 
wicked.  But  it  does  not  hurt  the  wicked  to  be  judged, 


THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD.  119 

It  only  decides  what  they  are.     It  does  not  punish  them. 
Their  evils  punish  them. 

Now,  the  Judgment  is  an  operation  of  the  Truth  in  the 
mind  of  those  that  are  judged.  They  decide  whether 
they  will  receive  the  Truth,  and  go  with  it ;  or  reject  it, 
and  go  against  it.  For,  it  is  written,  "  The  Father  judgeth 
no  man,  but  hath  committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son." 
(John  v,  22.)  And  the  Lord  says,  "  I  judge  no  man." 
(John  viii,  15.)  "  He  that  rejecteth  Me,  and  receiveth'  not 
My  Words,  hath  One  that  judgeth  him  :  the  Word  that  I 
have  spoken,  the  same  shall  judge  him,  in  the  last  day." 
(John  xii,  48.) 

Thus  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  the  Divine  Truth,  is  now 
coming,  the  second  time,  with  judgment.  He  came  also 
the  first  time  with  judgment ;  therefore  He  said,  "  Now 
is  the  judgment  of  this  world ;  now  is  the  prince  of  this 
world  cast  out."  Thus  redemption,  the  establishment  of 
the  church,  and  all  blessings,  come  with  judgment :  as  it 
is  written,  "  Zion  shall  be  redeemed  with  judgment." 
"  The  Lord  will  establish  His  kingdom  with  judgment." 
He  will  purge  Jerusalem  with  judgment.  Here  we  see 
that  the  Truth  of  the  commandments  is  the  life  and  power 
of  the  judgment,  in  the  mind.  So,  we  are  commanded  to 
"  keep  the  Lord's  judgments."  And  this  keeping  of  the 
judgments  regenerates  us,  and  unites  us  to  the  Lord  ;  for 
He  says,  "  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  judgment." 

Thus  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word  is  coming  to  raise 
us  from  the  dead,  judge  us,  purify  us,  fill  us  with  new 
Light  and  Life,  that  we  may  be  good  and  happy.  And  it 
comes,  saying,  "  Awake,  thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise 
from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light."  And, 
in  the  Spiritual  Sense  of  the  Word,  He  comes  "with 
power  and  great  glory : "  and  if  we  yield  to  Him,  His 


120  THE  ADVENTS  OF  THE  LORD. 

Truth  will  enter  and  explore  our  entire  memory,  so  that 
the  sea  will  give  up  its  dead.  Every  false  principle  with- 
in the  shores  of  our  knowledge,  or  understanding,  will  be 
judged  and  condemned  by  the  Truth,  and  freely  put 
away.  Nor  will  the  Light  stop  there,  but  will  enter  the 
will,  and  there,  Death  and  Hell  will  give  up  the  dead  that 
are  in  them  ;  or  all  the  evils  of  the  heart,  which  cause  the 
fires  of  hell  in  us  to  burn  with  anger,  revenge  and  malice, 
or  with  any  unkindness,  will  be  seen,  repented  of,  and 
given  up.  And  thus  the  Great  Judgment  which  is  prom- 
ised at  the  Lord's  Second  Coming,  will  be  performed  in 
each  mind  that  receives  Him  ;  all  the  dead  principles  of 
that  mind,  small  and  great,  will  stand  before  the  Truth ; 
the  sheep  and  the  goats  will  be  separated,  the  evils  and 
falsities  rejected,  and  the  whole  mind  will  be  brought  into 
harmony  and  peace.  Thus  we  live  in  the  Great  Judg- 
ment Day,  which  will  be  continued  as  long  as  there  is  any 
one  to  be  judged.  Through  this  judgment,  the  world  is 
to  be  brought  into  order,  until  the  Lord,  as  the  Divine 
Truth,  reigns  in  all  the  people  of  the  Earth ;  when  "  all 
shall  know  Him,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest."  And  as 
His  coming  is  through  the  literal  sense  of  the  "Word,  into 
the  human  mind,  therefore  the  "  clouds  of  heaven,"  in 
which  He  is  to  come,  are  the  dark  and  mysterious  appear- 
ances of  the  literal  sense  of  the  "Word  as  seen  in  the  mind 
— the  mental  heaven — until  illuminated  and  explained  by 
the  Spiritual  Sense. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    UNIVERSAL    LANGUAGE. 

GOD  is  the  Universal  Being,  ever,  unchangeably  the 
same  ;  His  "Word  is  universal  Light  and  Life,  ever  in,  it- 
self, the  same ;  His  Language,  therefore,  is  universal  and 
unchangeable  in  its  Divine  character  and  qualities.  It 
is  THE  UNIVERSAL  LANGUAGE.  This  is  the  Language  of 
Correspondences.  It  is  the  relative  law  of  life  between 
the  natural  and  the  spiritual  worlds.  And  being  the  uni- 
versal language,  it  is  the  basis  of  all  other  languages. 
No  language  could  be  formed  without  it ;  and  all  people 
more  or  less  use  it  in  adulterated  forms ;  and  they  see 
some  light  from  it,  though  they  may  know  nothing  of  it 
as  a  science.  Now,  for  a  simple  illustration :  bring  to- 
gether men  of  all  nations  of  the  earth,  who  know  nothing 
of  one  another's  languages,  but  are  acquainted  with  the 
characters  of  animals ;  then  bring  before  them  a  most 
selfish,  greedy,  loathsome  man,  and  point  to  him  and 
then  point  to  the  hog,  and  they  will  all  understand  the 
man's  character  better  probably  than  it  could  be  described 
in  their  several  languages.  And  it  will  be  the  same  if 
we  point  to  the  most  licentious,  secret,  and  subtle  man, 
and  then  to  the  serpent ;  or  to  the  most  innocent  and 
6 


122  THE  UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE. 

harmless,  and  then  to  the  lamb ;  or  to  the  most  bold, 
strong,  and  fearless,  and  then  to  the  lion  ;  or  to  the  most 
watchful  and  cautious,  even  to  cruelty  against  intruders, 
and  then  to  the  dog :  and  so  we  might  go  on  describing 
various  characters,  not  only  by  the  animals,  but  also  by 
other  things ;  by  the  hawk  and  the  dove,  the  wheat  and 
the  tares,  the  olive  and  the  thorn,  the  vine  and  the  bram- 
ble, by  things  wholesome  and  things  poisonous1.  Thus 
the  universal  language  everywhere  speaks,  either  in 
stronger  or  in  fainter  accents  ;  and  neither  the  wisest  nor 
the  most  ignorant  could  describe  a  thought  or  a  feeling 
without  it  or  ideas  drawn  from  it. 

At  the  time  when  the  Lord  said,  in  Genesis,  "  Behold, 
the  people  is  one,  and  they  have  all  one  language ; "  "  the 
whole  earth  was  of  one  language,  and  of  one  speech," 
then  the  people  all  spoke  the  universal  language.  The 
loss  of  that  language,  which  occurred  in  building  the 
tower  of  Babel,  left  men  without  any  sure  way  of  express- 
ing ideas ;  and  consequently  the  world  has  become  filled 
with  a  variety  of  uncertain  languages,  no  one  of  which 
any  two  persons  understand  alike.  This  is  because  the 
language  has  no  roots.  True,  the  language  we  use  pur- 
ports to  take  root  in  many  others.  But  even  these  lan- 
guages themselves,  and  even  those  of  them  which  are 
called  dead  or  fixed  languages,  have,  to  men,  lost  their 
roots.  Nature  is  the  ground  in  which  all  true  language 
takes  root.  And  the  law  of  analogy  is  the  only  light  in 
which  that  root  can  be  truly  seen.  "We  know  the  dead 
languages  are  not  fluctuating  and  changing,  like  those  in 
common  use.  But  the  reason  is  they  are  not  used.  It  is 
to  the  conservative  nature  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  lan- 
guages, that  we  are  indebted  for  so  correct  a  knowledge 
of  the  Holy  Word  as  we  now  have.  And  it  is  therefore 


THE   UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE.  123 

of  the  Divine  Providence  that  they  became  dead,  that 
they  could  better  preserve  the  Word.  Those  languages 
still  take  root  in  nature.  But  men,  by  the  loss  of  the 
science  of  correspondences,  see  not  where  nor  how  that 
root  exists.  Hence  the  uncertainty  which  hangs  over  the 
precise  meaning  of  many  things  in  even  those  languages, 
and  particularly  in  the  Holy  Word,  where  many  things 
were  written  solely  for  the  sake  of  the  spiritual  sense,  and 
therefore  where  no  shadow  of  a  rational  meaning  can  be 
seen  without  the  law  of  analogy. 

But  the  Lord  says  prophetically,  pointing  to  this  age 
of  the  world,  "  Then  will  I  turn  to  the  people  a  pure  lan- 
guage, that  they  may  all  call  upon  the  name  of  the  LORD, 
to  serve  Him  with  one  consent."  Now  what  can  this 
pure  language  be,  in  which  all  the  people  will  call  upon 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  to  serve  Him  with  one  consent, 
unless  it  be  a  language  which  will  give  them  all  the  same 
ideas  of  God  and  of  His  Word  ?  and  also,  unless  it  be 
that  very  language  which  the  people  had  when  the  whole 
earth  was  of  one  speech,  and  all  called  upon  the  name  of 
the  Lord  ?  And  who,  that  sees  the  science  of  correspond- 
ences and  reads  the  Word  by  it,  can  doubt  that  the  time 
has  now  come  in  which  that  prophecy  is  being  fulfilled, 
when  lie  sees  persons  of  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and 
tongue,  and  people  embracing  this  language,  reading  the 
Holy  Word  by  it,  and  as  they  truly  proceed,  understand- 
ing it  alike  ;  and  beholding  therein  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
as  the  one  God,  whom  they  can  all  serve  with  one  con- 
sent? And  what  other  language  can  the  Lord  turn  to 
the  people,  than  the  one  they  have  before  had,  and  which 
He  gave  them  ?  He  says  He  will  turn  to  the  people  a 
pure  language.  What  is  a  pure  language?  It  is  cer- 
tainly something  above  human.  Like  its  Divine  Author 


124  THE   UNIVERSAL    LANGUAGE. 

it  must  be  divine,  definite,  and  sure  ;  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever.  Such  is  the  language  of  analogy ; 
and  such  is  no  other  language.  Therefore,  in  the  prime- 
val age  the  people  read,  in  the  book  of  Nature,  the  history 
of  their  creation,  the  character  and  Jaws  of  God,  and  the 
nature  and  quality  of  themselves.  There  was  no  truth 
which  men  needed  to  know  that  this  book  of  Nature  did 
not  teach  or  indicate.  It  was  to  them  a  Fountain  of  infi- 
nite wisdom  from  the  Lord.  Upon  what  page  soever 
their  eyes  rested,  they  saw,  as  by  intuition,  the  true  na- 
ture and  character  of  the  scene  in  its  living  aspect.  So 
clearly  did  they  look  through  nature  up  to  natureVGod, 
that  the  very  names  which  they  gave  to  the  various  ob- 
jects of  the  creation  indicated  and  expressed  the  peculiar 
quality  and  character  of  those  objects.  Thus  it  was  a 
universal  language,  understood  and  read  by  all  alike  ;  for 
it  spoke  from  life,  through  qualities  clearly  indicated  by 
their  forms  and  uses.  And  for  a  long  time  the  language 
of  correspondences  was  the  only  language  of  the  earth. 

It  was  the  first  written  language.  "When  men  first 
began  to  put  their  thoughts  upon  the  barks  and  leaves  of 
the  trees,  and  the  skins  of  beasts,  they  did  it  in  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  nature.  They  had  no  other  language.  Pic- 
tures of  the  objects  in  nature,  instead  of  the  living  origin- 
als, became  the  expressive  symbols  of  men's  ideas.  And 
there  was  no  thought,  feeling,  passion,  or  propensity  of 
the  mind,  which  this  language  could  not  delineate  to  the 
life ;  and  much  more  correctly  than  any  other  language 
could  do  it ;  because  man's  spiritual  qualities  had  given 
the  very  forms  to  the  objects  in  nature  which  would  be 
selected  to  represent  those  qualities  in  man.  The  written 
language,  therefore,  could  not  possibly  be  mistaken  by 
any  one  who  understood  the  science  of  correspondences. 


THE   UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE.  125 

even  at  the  present  day.  Did  the  people  of  that  age  wish 
to  express  upon  parchment  any  attribute  or  character  of 
their  Creator  or  of  man,  in  the  book  of  Nature,  they  saw 
their  subject  in  living  lines,  and  any  expression  of  char- 
acter could  be  delineated  therefrom.  And  did  they  wish 
to  correspond  with  their  friends  at  a  distance,  or  narrate 
a  history  of  events,  this  mode  of  writing  was  amply  suffi- 
cient. 

But,  in  the  process  of  inventions,  the  period  arrived 
when  a  new  language,  from  the  use  of  sounds  expressed 
by  means  of  letters  and  words,  was  invented  and  intro- 
duced into  use.  But  even  in  this  language  men  still  con- 
veyed their  ideas,  as  before,  by  natural  symbols.  For, 
though  they  did  not  paint  any  longer  the  objects  of  na- 
ture, yet  they  spelled  and  used  the  names  of  those  objects, 
and  therefore  continued  to  look,  by  correspondence, 
through  the  objects  themselves,  for  the  quality  of  the 
ideas.  For  example  :  they  had  been  accustomed  to  paint 
the  lamb  for  innocence ;  the  serpent  for  subtlety ;  the 
hand  for  power ;  the  eye  for  the  understanding ;  the 
heart  for  the  will ;  the  ear  for  obedience ;  the  stars  for 
knowledges ;  the  moon  for  faith ;  the  sun  for  love,  and 
sometimes  for  the  Lord,  and  so  forth.  But  now  they  use 
the  names  of  these  things,  which  conveyed  the  same  ideas. 
For  the  names  of  things  always  indicated  their  quality. 
So  that  the  change  in  the  mode  of  writing  did  not  change 
in  the  least  the  character  of  the  language.  It  was  still 
the  language  of  correspondences — the  universal  language. 
And  the  names  of  the  natural  things  just  mentioned  now 
signify  in  the  Word  what  is  stated. 

This  is  the  true,  original  language.  And  in  this  lan- 
guage Moses,  a  man  skilled  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians,  wrote  the  Pentateuch  in  the  Hebrew  dialect ; 


126  THE   UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE. 

a  language  peculiar  for  the  expression  of  the  qualities  of 
things  by  their  names.  In  no  other  language  than  cor- 
respondences could  the  Bible  possibly  contain  the  Word 
of  God,  for  no  other  language  can  have,  in  itself,  "  spirit 
and  life." 

But  as  man  by  sinful  habits  became  less  and  less 
spiritually-minded,  and  gradually  sunk  into  sensuality 
and  naturalism,  so  this  sublime  language  lost  its 'beauty 
and  glory,  until  its  gold  became  as  dross  and  passed 
away.  But  not  without  leaving  its  expressive  memoran- 
dums upon  the  pyramids  of  Egypt ;  in  the  records  of  the 
Druids ;  in  Oriental  literature ;  in  the  fabulous  stories 
of  antiquity  ;  in  the  idolatrous  worship  of  the  Gentiles ; 
in  Heathen  mythology ;  in  the  poetry  of  all  ages ; 
and  even  faintly  in  the  present  profane  languages  of 
the  earth. 

But  from  all  these  remains,  the  spirit  and  life  have 
departed ;  and  the  consequence  of  the  loss  of  this  science  is 
"  confusion  of  tongues  "  all  over  the  earth.  Men  cannot 
now  certainly  understand  each  other.  Their  words  have 
no  definite  meaning.  They  quarrel  from  the  want  of  a 
sure  way  of  .expressing  their  ideas.  The  hottest  mental 
combats  often  end  in  the  perception  of  the  fact  that  the 
parties  both  meant  the  same  thing,  but  misunderstood 
each  other's  words. 

It  is  therefore  from  false,  and  not  from  true  views  of 
the  "Word,  that  men  are  divided.  Truths  are  eternal 
verities.  They  are  ever  and  unchangeably  the  same. 
And  all  truths  are  in  harmony,  and  sustain  each  other. 
About  them,  when  seen,  men  cannot  differ.  It  is  about 
falsities  altogether  that  the  Christian  world  is  contending. 
Falsities  are  all  dark,  unstable, deceptive, and  mysterious; 
fit  grounds  for  contention  and  strife,  and  for  the  proud 


THE   UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE.  127 

display  of  self- wisdom  ;  and  constant  changes  of  opinion 
are,  and  must  be,  taking  place  among  those  who  build 
upon  such  grounds  :  while  those  who  build  on  the  "  Eock 
of  Ages" — the  spiritual  truth  of  the  "Word,  rationally 
seen  in  the  light  of  analogy — never  can  change  their 
views,  nor  disagree  in  their  doctrines,  unless  by  sin  they 
lose  their  language.  Analogical  students  of  the  Word, 
therefore,  so  far  as  they  receive  the  light,  will  come  to 
the  same  conclusions  as  to  its  teachings,  because  their 
investigations  will  be  carried  on  by  a  scientific  Law,  and 
that  Law  divine  ;  and  the  reason  they  will  not  disagree  is 
the  very  reason  why  they  differ  not  in  mathematics  :  be- 
cause in  both  instances  the  truths  are  indisputable.  If,  as 
we  believe,  there  are  110  two  persons  who,  without  the 
light  of  this  science,  do  agree  as  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
"Word,  and  no  two  who  have  it  that  disagree,  the  ques- 
tion as  to  its  truth  becomes  a  startling  one. 

Thus  nature  is  the  basis  of  all  language.  And,  how- 
ever lost  we  may  now  be  to  the  true  roots  and  laws  of 
our  own  dialect,  we  may  soon  know  by  rational  reflection 
that  it  is  Dame  Nature  that  has  taught  us  all  to  talk. 
We  can  lisp  only  her  accents.  True,  her  language  has 
become  to  us  much  adulterated,  but  that  is  our  own  fault. 
We  use  it  nevertheless.  Of  this  we  may  be  convinced  by 
trying  to  answer  this  one  question  :  Had  we  no  language, 
how  would  we  get  one  ?  Now,  we  may  think  deeply,  and 
seek,  as  keenly  as  we  can,  the  answer  to  this  question, 
and  we  shall  find  it  impossible  to  see  how  to  express  a 
single  idea  in  speech  without  taking  the  sign  from  nature. 
For  illustration  :  Had  we  no  words  to  express  the  idea  of 
innocence,  how  would  we  declare  it  ?  By  a  harmless  ex- 
pression of  the  face,  a  soft  tone  of  the  voice,  or  a  gentle 
motion  of  the  hand  ?  How  should  we  know  but  it  meant 


128  THE   UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE. 

gentleness,  kindness,  quietude,  or  some  other  grace  or 
virtue?  We  could  not  certainly  tell.  We  should  have 
no  other  way  than  by  seeking  something  in  nature  which 
was  a  symbol  of  innocence.  And  if  we  could  read  the 
book  of  Nature  in  correspondences,  we  should  point  at 
once  to  the  lamb.  But  having  lost  the  science  of  corre- 
spondences, the  language  we  should  now  draw  from  na- 
ture, if  we  had  none,  would  be  very  indefinite.  Still  we 
should  go  there  ;  for  the  natural  man  has  no  other  way, 
and  can  think  of  no  other  way  to  describe  his  thoughts 
and  feelings,  but  in  the  use  of  words  which  have  been 
drawn  entirely  from  nature. 

Take  for  instance  the  whole  variety  of  adjectives,  by 
which  we  express  the  qualities  of  mental  things :  bitter, 
sweet,  sour,  warm,  cold,  long,  short,  high,  low,  dark, 
light,  near,  distant,  black,  white,  no  matter  what.  They 
are  all  taken  from  nature.  And  yet  we  use  them  to  de- 
scribe the  states  and  qualities  of  the  mind.  We  speak  of 
a  warm  or  cold  heart ;  a  bitter,  sweet,  or  sour  temper, 
and  of  a  long,  deep,  or  shallow  head ;  of  high  or  low 
spirits  ;  a  dark  and  muddy,  or  clear  and  lucid  understand- 
ing ;  a  bright  or  cloudy  intellect ;  a  black  character ;  a 
distant  relative,  a  near  friend,  a  knotty  subject ;  and  so 
we  might  go  on  and  fill  up  our  chapter.  These  expres- 
sions are  used  because  there  is  no  other  way  to  express 
the  quality  of  spiritual  things  but  by  means  of  words  ex- 
pressive of  the  quality  of  natural  things. 

Now,  nothing  short  of  the  restoration  of  this  science 
can  ever  draw  out  the  deep  truths  of  the  Word,  restore 
harmony  to  the  minds  of  Christians,  and  bring  the  watch- 
men to  sec  eye  to  eye.  Well  may  the  Psalmist  sing  of 
things  of  nature,  saying,  "  There  is  no  speech  nor  Ian- 


THE   UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE.  129 

guage  where  their  voice  is  not  heard.  Their  line  is  gone 
out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their  words  to  the  end  of 
the  world."  * 

*  See  SILVER'S  Lectures,  on  the  Symbolic  Character  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures, Chapters  II  and  III,  from  which  we  have  made  extracts  in  this  chapter. 


6* 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  MICROCOSM  AND  THE  MACROCOSM. 

MEN  once  saw  that  the  outward  creation  or  visible 
system — the  Sun,  Moon,  Stars,  and  Earth,  with  all  their 
varieties  of  things — was  a  symbol  of  the  human  mind. 
Before  the  science  of  correspondences  was  lost,  this  was 
clearly  understood,  from  the  very  nature  of  God,  men  and 
things.  For  this  reason  man  was  called  a  microcosm  or 
little  world.  Arid  now,  by  means  of  that  science,  we  of 
this  age  may  see  the  propriety  of  the  expression.  For  the 
science  expressly  shows  that  God  has  given  His  Word  to 
teach  us  spiritual  things  through  His  "Works. 

For  this  purpose  the  things  of  nature  are  constantly 
brought  up  in  His  Word.  Read  where  we  will,  they  are 
ever  before  our  thoughts.  And  though  the  Word  is  given 
by  a  Spiritual  Being,  to  teach  spiritual  creatures  spiritual 
things,  and  comes  declaring  itself  to  be  Spirit  and  Life, 
yet  it  commences  with  the  mention  of  natural  things  and 
natural  events ;  and  it  talks  about  them  continually, 
throughout  the  entire  Bible. 

It  is  no  wonder  therefore  that,  upon  the  loss  of  the 
science  of  correspondences,  men  became  more  and  more 
natural  until  they  saw,  in  the  Word,  little  else  than  a 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  131 

history  of  natural  things,  and  laws  for  the  action  of  ma- 
terial bodies  ;  as  was  the  case  with  the  Jews ;  but  few  of 
whom  had  any  thoughts  of  spiritual  things  or  of  any 
existence  above  matter. 

But  we  may  now  see  that  the  Word  so  speaks,  because 
natural  things  are  the  results  of  spiritual  things,  and  cor- 
respond to  them.  For  all  natural  things  are  the  effects 
of  will  and  understanding  somewhere  exercised.  And 
those  things  must  point,  by  certain  and  eternal  laws,  to 
the  character  and  quality  of  the  causes  which  produced 
them.  Throughout  the  whole  Divine  Record,  therefore, 
we  may  look,  by  analogy,  through  the  effects  to  their 
causes,  and  see  the  nature  and  character  of  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  which  brought  the  natural  events  to  pass. 
And  we  may  thus  read  the  spiritual,  the  real  history. 
"Who  cannot  read  in  a  human  production  something  of  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  artist  who  paints  a  picture,  or 
of  the  man  who  invents  a  machine  ?  Precisely  so  do  all 
natural  things  suggest  the  mental  nature  and  character  of 
their  causes. 

And  now,  when  we  contemplate  the  spirituality  of  the 
"Word,  and  see  that  the  historical  parts,  besides  the  account 
they  give  of  God,  are  a  narrative  of  the  various  creations, 
falls  and  regenerations  of  the  souls  of  men,  in  different 
ages  and  under  various  circumstances ;  and  that  the  pro- 
phetical portions  are  a  description  of  the  same  kind  of 
things  foretold ;  while  the  legal  parts  are  given  for  the 
guidance  of  the  mental  action  of  those  souls,  and  for  their 
true  illumination  and  life  ;  and  that  even  the  Psalms,  be- 
sides their  reference  to  the  glorification  of  the  Lord's 
Humanity,  are  a  description  of  the  same  kind  of  things, 
showing  more  particularly  what  men's  souls  pass  through 
in  their  regeneration,  and  the  influences  which  produce 


132  THE   MICKOCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM. 

it :  I  say,  when  we  see  this,  and  understand  that  the 
things  below  man  in  the  scale  of  being,  are  symbols  of  his 
mental  qualities ;  and  that  the  internal  plane  of  man's 
mind  is  his  heaven,  with  its  sun,  moon  and  stars,  and  that 
the  external  plane  is  his  earth,  with  all  its  living  creatures 
of  affections  and  thoughts,  then  there  will  be  a  view 
opened,  for  a  bird's-eye  glance  at  the  "Word,  whereby  a 
flood  of  light  will  flow  into  our  minds  to  aid  us  in  the  in-, 
vestigations  before  us.  For  it  will  give  us  a  clue  to  the 
true  meaning  of  all  those  dark  passages  in  the  "Word 
which  speak  of  the  creation  and  passing  away,  at  sundry 
times,  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  as  well  a£  to  all  other 
strange  things  said  therein  ;  for  it  will  open  the  door  for 
a  general  exploration  and  understanding  of  the  entire 
"Word,  by  correspondences. 

From  this  view  we  may  see  that,  as  man  is  a  micro- 
cosm, having  within  him  all  the  living  elements  of  the 
macrocosm  ;  and  as  God,  the  Infinite  Man,  is  the  Author 
and  Father  of  all,  is  related  to  all,  and  is  giving  existence 
and  life  to  all ;  so  therefore  the  history  and  study  of  man 
is  the  history  and  study  of  everything.  And  God's  Holy 
"Word  embraces  that  whole  vast  history.  It  is  an  entire 
history  of  man  ;  past,  present  and  prophetic.  "Whatever 
therefore  may  be  the  apparent  subject  of  the  letter  of  tlie 
Word,  we  must  look,  by  analogy,  through  what  appears 
on  the  surface,  to  matters  of  the  mind — to  things  human. 

"Where  the  creation  of  natural  things  is  mentioned, 
the  internal  sense  treats  of  the  creation  of  the  spiritual 
things  to  which  the  natural  things  correspond.  This  im- 
mense, and  yet  consolidated  system  of  views,  of  God,  man, 
and  the  universe ;  and  of  the  Holy  Word,  as  the  medium 
of  light  and  life  to  all  created  things ;  strikes  many  minds, 
at  the  first  view,  as  strange  and  novel ;  and  they  turn 


THE   MICEOOOSM    AND    THE    MACROCOSM.  133 

aside,  saying,  it  is  asking  too  much  to  request  their  atten- 
tion to  any  such  system.  But  let  me  ask  them  if  it  is 
asking  too  much  to  request  'their  attention  to  the  "Word 
of  the  Most  High  God  ?  And  let  me  further  ask,  where 
they  are,  without  the  Word  of  God,  and  what  light  they 
can  bring  from  any  other  source  or  system  to  show  the 
use,  beauty  and  harmony  of  that  entire  Word  ?  Upon 
what  other  ground,  than  this  language  of  analogy,  can  we 
possibly  account  for  the  propriety  or  use  of  many  portions 
of  the  Sacred  Word  ?  What  shall  we  do  with  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  Joshua,  or  with  the  books  of  Ezekiel  and  the 
Apocalypse,  or  with  many  mysterious  things  scattered 
throughout  the  Word  ?  Why  is  the  vast  universe,  in  gen- 
erals and  in  particulars,  so  frequently  brought  before  us  2 
The  sun,  moon,  stars,  winds,  rain,  clouds,  hail,  snow,  ice, 
frost,  fire,  light,  darkness,  calms,  storms,  thunders,  earth- 
quakes, floods,  droughts,  mountains,  hills,  valleys,  seas, 
rivers — everything  inanimate :  beasts,  birds,  fishes,  rep- 
tiles, insects — everything  that  flies,  walks,  creeps,  swims, 
or  crawls  :  trees,  brambles,  briers,  shrubs,  thistles,  wheat, 
rye,  barley,  corn — everything  that  grows  upon  the  earth  : 
gold,  silver,  copper,  brass,  iron,  lead,  precious  stones, 
rocks,  clay,  sand — everything  in  the  earth  ;  and  even  the 
earth  itself :  why  are  these  things  so  frequently  mentioned 
by  the  Lord,  in  whole  or  in  part,  to  teach  men  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Word  and  the  way  of  life  ?  for  "  all  Scripture 
is  profitable  for  doctrine."  Must  it  not  be  because  they 
impart  moral  and  religious  instruction  by  a  higher  mean- 
ing that  the  letter  which  killeth  ?  Why  are  these  things 
mentioned  as  living  and  rational  creatures?  the  floods 
clapping  their  hands,  the  hills  rejoicing,  the  trees  choos- 
ing a  king,  the  mountains  moving  about,  the  hills  skip- 
ping  like  young  sheep,  the  valleys  shouting  and  singing, 


134:  THE  MICROCOSM  AND  THE  MACROCOSM. 

the  earth  reeling  ta  and  fro  like  a  drunken  man,  every- 
thing that  hath  breath  praising  the  Lord,  and  God  enter- 
ing into  covenant  with  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the 
creeping  things  of  the  earth, — why  all  this,  unless  they 
correspond  to  principles  in  man ;  so  that  it  is  man  that 
reels  to  and  fro,  man  that  praises  God  by  every  living- 
principle  of  his  nature,  man  with  whom  God  entered  into 
covenant,  man  that  shouts  and  sings,  man  that  claps  his 
hands,  man  that  chooses  a  king,  principles  in  man  that 
skip  like  young  sheep,  mountains  in  man  that  are  moved  ? 
It  must  be  so  :  and  by  the  science  of  correspondences  it  is 
clearly  seen  to  be  so.  But  without  this  science,  what  can 
we  learn  from  such  things  of  the  "Word  as  the  Lord's  shav- 
ing with  a  hired  razor,  and  its  consuming  the  beard  from 
the  feet  ?  From  the  dragon's  sweeping  down  a  third  part 
of  the  stars  with  his  tail  ?  From  a  chariot's  being  cast 
into  a  dead  sleep  ?  From  Jehovah's  riding  on  horseback 
or  in  chariots  ?  From  horses'  coming  out  of  the  book 
when  opened  ?  From  the  locusts  with  shapes  like  horses, 
faces  like  men,  hair  like  women,  teeth  like  lions,  and  tails 
like  scorpions.  What  can  these  things  mean  ?  Are  they 
the  "Word  of  Infinite  Wisdom  ?  They  are,  most  certainly  ; 
and  they  are  beaming  with  truth,  clear  to  the  mind 
and  filled  with  food  for  hungry  souls.  Come  ye  to  the 
banquet !  come  with  confidence  and  a  teachable  spirit, 
and  you  will  find,  in  every  passage,  a  well  of  living  water 
springing  up  unto  everlasting  life,  for  all  that  thirst.* 

Now,  from  this  general  glance  at  the  subject  let  us 
next  look  at  the  use  made  in  the  Word  of  the  sun,  moon 
and  stars.  As  these  are  called  heavenly  bodies  and  are 
said  to  be  in  the  heavens,  so  in  order  for  them  to  corre- 

•  See  SILVER'S  Lectures,  Chapter  III. 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  135 

spond  to  things  of  the  human  mind,  that  mind  must  have 
its  heaven.  And  as  the  Holy  Word  is  a  history  of  the 
human  mind,  and  commences  by  saying,  "  In  the  begin- 
ning God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth,"  so,  by  the 
word  "  heaven  "  is  meant  the  internal  plane  of  the  mind, 
and  by  the  "  earth,"  the  external  plane.  And  a  little  ex- 
amination will  show  any  one  that  this  is  what  is  meant  by 
the  phrase  "  the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  wherever  used  in 
the  Word. 

The  Lord  says,  in  Isaiah  (Ixv,  1Y),  "  Behold,  I  create 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  :  and  the  former  shall  not 
be  remembered,  nor  come  into  mind."  Now  by  the 
former  heavens  and  earth  which  are  not  to  be  remembered 
must  be  meant  the  very  heavens  and  earth  created  in  the 
beginning,  for  they  can  mean  no  other.  And  they  must 
also  mean  the  human  mind,  because  by  the  new  heavens  and 
new  earth  mentioned,  is  meant,  a  new  state  of  the  human 
mind,  with  the  internal  and  external  mind  brought  into 
order ;  for  the  prophecy  continues,  "  Behold,  I  create 
Jerusalem  a  rejoicing,  and  her  people  a  joy ; "  where  Jeru- 
salem means  the  church  or  the  human  mind  in  order. 

Now,  this  prophecy,  in  Isaiah,  relates  to  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  in  the  flesh,  for  the  establishment  of  the 
Christian  Church,  or  of  a  new  state  of  the  human  mind. 
And  this  state  of  the  mind  is  the  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth,  to  which  the  prophecy  refers :  for  the  former 
heavens  and  earth,  or  good  and  true  state  of  the  mind,  had 
passed  away  in  the  progressive  fall  of  man  ;  and  the  new 
heavens  and  earth  were  to  take  their  place. 

And  so,  in  the  prophecy  through  Jeremiah,  our  Lord 
says,  in  reference  to  this  dark  state  of  the  human  mind  or 
of  the  church,  "  My  people  is  foolish,  they  have  not  known 
Me  ;  they  are  sottish  children,  and  have  none  understand- 


136  THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE    MACROCOSM. 

ing ;  they  are  wise  to  do  evil,  but  to  do  good  they  have 
no  knowledge.  I  beheld  the  earth,  and  lo,  it  was  without 
form  and  void ;  and  the  heavens,  and  there  was  no  light; 
I  beheld,  and  lo,  there  was  DO  man,  and  all  the  birds  of 
heaven  were  fled."  Here  we  have  the  depraved  state  of 
the  Jews,  at  the  time  the  Lord  was  to  come  in  the  flesh. 
Aiid  how  much  it  is  like  the  description  of  the  state  of 
the  first  people  on  earth,  while  in  spiritual  ignorance,  or 
before  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  established  in  them ! 
for  that  narrative,  in  Genesis,  says,  "  In  the  beginning  God 
created  the  heaven  and  the  earth  :  and  the  earth  was  with- 
out form,  and  void  /  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of 
the  deep"  And  so  the  Jewish  mind  at  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  was  without  form,  and  void,  because  it  was  not  sym- 
metrical, being  deformed  by  sin,  and  void  of  goodness  and 
truth.  Its  heavens  or  internal  mind,  as  the  prophecy  de- 
clares, had  no  light,  for  it  had  ceased  to  be  spiritual. 
And  the  reason  why  it  is  said,  "  there  was  no  man"  is, 
because  it  requires  the  image  of  God  to  make  a  real  man ; 
and  this  the  Jews  had  lost.  And  so  the  reason  why  it  is 
said  that  all  the  birds  of  heaven  were  fled  is  because  all 
heavenly  thoughts  were  gone.  The  Jews  had  become  a 
low,  sensual  people. 

Now  in  order  to  restore  the  Jews  to  the  image  of  God, 
the  lights  of  truth  must  be  set  again  in  the  heavens,  to 
give  light  upon  the  earth,  and  the  fled  birds  or  heavenly 
thoughts  must  be  called  back.  And  all  this  the  Lord 
did,  in  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  Church.  He 
even  created  man  again  in  His  own  image  after  His  like- 
ness :  or  He  created  a  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  or 
the  church  in  man,  and  illuminated  it.  And  He  says  to 
it  prophetically,  "  Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light  is  come,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee ;  and  the  Gentiles 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  137 

shall  walk  to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy 
rising."  Thus  the  Lord  is  the  light  of  the  mind  or  of  the 
church.  The  sun  denotes  the  Lord  as  to  love  and  wis- 
dom, the  moon  denotes  truth  or  faith,  and  the  stars  truths 
or  knowledges.  These  things  are  never  mentioned  in  the 
"Word  without  having  this  signification.  For  as  the  moon 
is  a  dark,  opaque  body,  receiving  all  its  light  from  the 
sun,  so  the  human  mind  is  a  dark  opaque  body,  receiving 
all  its  light  of  truth,  or  its  true  faith,  from  the  Lord,  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness.  And  as  the  human  mind  shines  by 
the  truths  "of  faith  from  the  Lord,  so  the  moon  shines  by 
light  borrowed  from  the  sun.  The  moon  is  therefore  used 
in  the  Word  as  a  true  symbol  of  faith.  And  the  stars  are 
most  beautiful  symbols  of  truths  or  knowledges  in  the 
mind.  Being  bright  objects  in  the  natural  firmament, 
they  denote  true  principles  in  the  understanding  or  men- 
tal firmament.  "What  a  beautiful  mental  constellation  are 
the  ten  commandments,  when  bright  and  clear  in  the  firm- 
ament of  the  mind !  Like  beacon  lights  to  the  natural 
mariner,  they  stand  in  our  mental  heavens  as  fixed  stars 
upon  which  we  may  ever  depend,  to  mark  our  moral  and 
religious  latitude  and  longitude  in  the  ocean  of  life,  as  we 
strive,  in  dependence  upon  the  Lord,  to  guide  our  frail 
bark  of  humanity,  in  its  onward-bound  voyage  to  the 
haven  of  peace,  our  eternal  home.  Stars  are  therefore 
said  to  fall  from  heaven,  or  to  withdraw  their  shining, 
whenever  man  loses  his  knowledge  of  the  truths  of  the 
Word. 

In  the  prophecy  in  Joel,  concerning  a  dark  and  de- 
praved state  of  the  world,  the  Lord  says,  "  The  earth  shall 
quake  before  them  ;  the  heavens  shall  tremble ;  the  sun 
and  the  moon  shall  be  dark,  and  the  stars  shall  withdraw 
their  shining  ....  The  sun  shall  be  turned  into  darkness, 


138  THE   MICROCOSM    AND   THE   MACROCOSM. 

and  the  moon  into  blood."  (ii,  10,  31.)  This  is  a  pro- 
phetic description  of  the  dismal  state  of  the  human  mind 
when  its  sun  of  righteousness,  its  moon  of  faith,  and  its 
stars  of  spiritual  knowledges  cease  to  shine.  And  how 
graphic  is  this  description  when  the  analogy  is  seen !  No 
human  language  can  compare  with  it  either  for  fulness, 
definiteness  or  force. 

"What  a  pitiable  state  of  man,  or  of  the  mental  earth, 
is  shown  by  the  following  language  through  Isaiah  !  "  The 
earth  mourneth  and  fadeth  away.  The  earth  is  defiled. 
The  foundations  of  the  earth  do  shake.  The  earth  is  ut- 
terly broken  down.  The  earth  is  clean  dissolved.  The 
earth  is  moved  exceedingly.  The  earth  shall  reel  to 
and  fro  like  a  drunkard."  Now  as  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars  were  not  disturbed  at  the  Lord's  coming,  when  this 
prophecy  was  fulfilled,  something  else  is  meant.  And  we 
have  positive  proof,  in  plain  and  unmistakable  language, 
what  that  something  else  is.  For  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
when  the  people  "  were  all  amazed,  and  marvelled,  saying 
one  to  another,  behold,  are  not  all  these  which  speak 
Galilseans  ?  And  how  hear  we  every  man  in  our  own 
tongue,  wherein  we  were  born  ?  .  .  .  But  Peter,  standing 
up  with  the  eleven,  lifted  up  his  voice,  and  said  unto 
them,  .  .  .  This  is  that  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet 
Joel :  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  saith 
God,  ...  I  will  show  wonders  in  heaven  above,  and 
signs  in  the  earth  beneath ;  blood,  and  fire,  and  vapour  of 
smoke:  the  sun  shall  be  turned  into  darkness,  and  the 
moon  into  blood,  before  that  great  and  notable  day  of  the 
Lord  come." 

Here.  Peter  quotes  the  very  words  of  Joel  (ii,  28-31), 
who  declares  that  before  the  things,  mentioned  as  occur- 
ring on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  should  take  place,  the  sun 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  139 

should  be  turned  into  darkness,  and  the  moon  into  blood. 
Thus  showing  clearly  that,  before  the  Christian  Church 
should  be  established,  the  true  light  of  faith  would  be  gone 
from  the  human  mind  on  earth.  For  by  the  sun's  being 
turned  into  darkness  is  meant  the  loss  of  all  true  knowl- 
edge and  love  of  the  Lord,  the  Sun  of  Kighteousness.  •  And 
by  the  moon's  being  turned  to  blood  is  meant  violence 
done  to  faith.  There  can  be  no  question  of  the  meaning 
of  these  prophecies  left  in  the  mind  of  any  one,  after 
candidly  examining  them  in  the  light  of  analogy,  in  which 
they  are  written. 

The  same  symbolic  language  is  used  in  the  prophetic 
portions  of  the  New  Testament,  to  express  another  dark, 
divided  and  distracted  state  of  the  religious  world  on  the 
earth,  and  of  the  establishment  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 
For  the  prophet  John  says,  in  the  Apocalypse,  "  and  I 
saw  a  new  heaven,  and  a  new  earth  :  for  the  first  heaven 
and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away :  .  .  .  and  I  John 
saw  the  holy  city,  New  Jerusalem,  coming  down  from 
God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her 
husband.  And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of  heaven  say- 
ing, Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  He 
will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  people,  and 
God  Himself  shall  be  with  them,  their  God." 

Now  the  whole  24th  chapter  of  Matthew  is  a  prophecy 
of  the  divisions,  disorders  and  troubles  which  would  arise 
in  the  Christian  world,  and  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  for 
the  establishment  of  the  New  Jerusalem.  The  Lord  there 
says,  "  Immediately  after  the  tribulation  of  those  days 
shall  the  sun  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give 
her  light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  and  the 
powers  of  the  heavens  shall  be  shaken :  and  then  shall 
appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  man  in  heaven  :  and  then 


140  THE   MICROCOSM  AND  THE   MACROCOSM. 

shall  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  mourn,  and  they  shall  see 
the  Son  of  man  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  with 
power  and  great  glory."  All  these  wonderful  things  con- 
cerning the  sun,  moon  and  stars,  were  to  take  place  before 
the  coming  of  the  Lord  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  and  the 
descent  of  the  New  Jerusalem.  And  as  the  things  writ- 
ten concerning  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  did  not  take  place 
in  outward  nature  at  the  Lord's  first  coining,  as  prophesied 
in  Isaiah,  Jeremiah  and  Joel,  we  therefore  are  not  to  look 
for  anything  of  the  kind  at  His  second  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  for  it  is  declared  that  in  both  instances 
the  same  things  would  take  place. 

But  all  will  be  plain  when  men  see  that  the  clouds  are 
the  dark,  literal  sense  of  the  Word,  when  not  understood  ; 
and  that  the  Lord,  who  is  the  Truth,  will  make  His  com- 
ing as  the  spiritual  light  of  the  Word,  in  those  clouds,  by 
means  of  the  science  of  correspondences.  Who  does  not 
see  that  without  that  science,  the  Scripture  we  have  con- 
sidered is  a  dark  cloud  in  the  mind  ?  But  by  the  use  of 
that  science,  the  Lord,  as  heavenly  light,  comes  in  this 
cloud  with  power  and  great  glory. 

The  passage  in  Mark  which  treats  of  the  second  com- 
ing of  the  Lord,  and  of  the  state  of  the  world,  reads  thus  : 
"  But  in  those  days,  after  that  tribulation,  the  sun  shall  be 
darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  and  the 
stars  of  heaven  shall  fall."  By  the  tribulation  of  those 
days  is  meant  what  we  now  see  throughout  the  world,  as 
divisions,  and  subdivisions,  and  contentions  of  sects,  and 
parties,  and  creeds,  called  in  the  prophetic  teachings  of 
the  24th  chapter  of  Matthew,  wars,  and  rumors  of  wars, 
and  earthquakes,  and  pestilences,  and  famines,  and  cry- 
ings  of  lo,  here,  and  lo,  there.  But  in  Isaiah  (Ix,  18,  20), 
where  it  is  prophesied  of  the  coming  of  the  New  Jerusa- 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  14:1 

lem,  our  Lord  says,  "  Violence  shall  no  more  be  heard  in 
thy  land,  wasting  nor  destruction  within  thy  borders  ;  but 
thou.  shalt  call  thy  walls  salvation,  and  thy  gates  praise. 
Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down  ;  neither  shall  thy  moon 
withdraw  itself :  for  the  LORD  shall  be  thine  everlasting 
light,  and  the  days  01  thy  mourning  shall  be  ended." 

In  one  of  the  prophecies  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
through  St.  John,  it  says,  "There  appeared  a  great 
wonder  in  heaven ;  a  woman  clothed  with  the  sun  and 
the  moon  under  her  feet ;  and  upon  her  head  a  crown  of 
twelve  stars."  The  woman  denotes  the  crowning  state 
of  the  church,  when  she  is  to  come  as  a  bride  adorned  for 
her  husband.  How  cheering  the  thought  that  the  church 
is  yet  to  be  clothed  with  light  as  with  a  garment — a  light 
shining  from  heavenly  love,  so  that  her  deportment  will 
be  pure  mercy  and  intelligence ;  that  her  understanding 
is  to  be  filled  with  all  spiritual  knowledges,  symbolized 
by  a  crown  of  twelve  stars  :  that  she  will  ever  stand  firm 
upon  the  eternal  rock  of  true  faith,  denoted  by  the  moon 
under  her  feet  as  a  sure  lantern  to  her  paths  ! 

There  is  another  striking  prophecy  in  the  Apocalypse, 
concerning  the  disturbed  and  beclouded  condition  of  the 
Christian  world  preceding  the  descent  of  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem. It  reads  thus  :  "  The  sun  became  black  as  sackcloth 
of  hair,  and  the  moon  became  as  blood  ;  and  the  stars  of 
heaven  fell  unto  the  earth,  even  as  a  fig-tree  casteth  her 
untimely  figs,  when  she  is  shaken  of  a  mighty  wind  ;  and 
the  heavens  departed  as  a  scroll  when  it  is  rolled  to- 
gether." ISTow  while  we  cannot  conceive  of  stars  falling 
from  heaven,  nor  the  moon  becoming  as  blood,  we  can 
conceive  of  truths  becoming  lost  to  the  mind,  and  of  vio- 
lence being  done  to  faith,  while  it  is  crimsoned  with  sins 
of  every  dye. 


142  THE   MICKOCOSM    AND   THE   MACROCOSM. 

We  have  now  given  a  brief  explanation  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  the  sun,  moon  and  stars, 
from  the  very  commencement  of  the  Word  to  its  close — in 
Genesis,  in.  the  Prophets,  in  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  as  taken  from  the  Prophets,  and  in  Revela- 
tion. The  literal  sense  alone  is  against  the  reason  which 
God  has  given  to  man,  and  consequently  cannot  teach 
him.  But,  by  the  divine  science  of  correspondences,  in 
which  the  Holy  Word  is  written,  we  have  a  rational  and 
beautiful  view  of  the  truth  therein  taught.  And  what  is 
most  important  is,  they  show  us  our  God,  and  teach  us  the 
way  of  life  and  salvation — the  very  things  which  we  most 
need  to  know,  and  which  the  good  God  most  desires  to 
teach  us. 

Again,  the  mind  has  its  mountains,  hills  and  valleys. 
Mountains  are  our  highest  loves,  whether  good  or  evil. 
Therefore  if  the  thing  we  most  ardently  love  be  goodness, 
that  affection  would  be  called  a  "  mountain  of  holiness,"  a 
"  mountain  of  the  Lord,"  because  a  high  state  of  love  to 
the  Lord.  So  if  it  be  self  we  most  love,  manifested  in 
some  violent  feeling  of  revenge  or  malice  toward  some  in- 
dividual who  has  injured  or  slandered  us,  that  bitter  feel- 
ing is  also  a  mountain — the  uppermost  pinnacle  of  our 
mental  earth.  This  mountain  must  be  removed  before  we 
can  find  rest  or  peace  of  soul.  This  is  the  kind  of  moun- 
tain to  which,  if  we  have  faith  like  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed,  we  can  say,  "be  thou  removed,  and  it  shall  be 
done ;  "  for  if  we  have  faith  to  believe  that  it  is  wrong  to 
feel  unkind  toward  anybody ;  that  we  should  love  even 
our  enemies  and  bless  those  that  curse  us,  then  we  can  re- 
move this  mountain  of  revenge. 

Hills,  in  a  bad  sense,  denote  feelings  not  so  high  as 
mountains,  not  BO  bitter  as  revenge  or  malice,  yet  feelings 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  143 

which  are  unkind  and  uncharitable.  In  a  good  sense, 
they  denote  feelings  of  charity  and  good-will.  From  this, 
we  may  form  some  idea  of  what  is  meant  in  the  Word  by 
the  moving  about  of  mountains  and  hills.  For  the  moun- 
tains of  self-love,  and  the  hills  of  the  love  of  the  world  are 
removed  by  regeneration  ;  and  the  mountains  of  the  love 
of  God  and  the  neighbor  take  their  place. 

Wherever  in  the  Word,  animals  are  mentioned,  we  find 
in  them  a  representation  of  the  human  affections ;  in  the 
birds  mentioned,  we  see  a  symbol  of  man's  thoughts. 
And  the  more  closely  we  study  the  character  and  qualities 
of  the  various  animals  and  birds,  in  connection  with  our 
own  feelings  and  thoughts,  the  more  strongly  will  we  be- 
come confirmed  in  the  belief  that  there  must  be  some  ana- 
logical law  or  connection  between  the  human  mind  and 
these  creatures.  We  shall  then  understand  why  Herod 
was  called  a  fox,  and  Dan  a  lion's  whelp  or  an  adder  in 
the  path.  We  shall  also  see  why  the  Lord  says,  "  The  lion 
shall  lie  down  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  with  the 
kid ;  the  cow  and  bear  shall  feed  together,  and  a  little 
child  shall  lead  them  ; "  for  by  this  language  we  shall  see 
a  beautiful  description  of  the  state  of  the  regenerate  mind, 
when  all  the  various  feelings  of  the  bosom,  denoted  by 
the  different  beasts,  are  in  harmony  and  love ;  when  the 
strong  lion  and  leopard  of  the  mind  are  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  mercy  and  truth,  and  are  faithfully  protecting 
the  lambs  and  kids  of  innocence  and  virtue  from  all 
harm,  and  even  lying  down  in  their  embrace.  We  shall 
understand  what  is  meant  in  the  Word,  by  the  beasts  be- 
fore the  throne  of  God  full  of  eyes  before  and  behind. 
For,  as  eyes  denote  the  understanding,  we  shall  see  that 
it  is  the  affections  of  man  filled  with  wisdom  concerning 
things  future  and  past.  We  shall  see  why  it  is  written  that 


144  THE  MICROCOSM   AND   THE  MACROCOSM. 

the  beasts  give  glory,  and  honor,  and  thanksgiving  to  the 
Lord ;  why  the  beasts  say,  Amen  ;  why,  when  the  Lord 
opened  the  first  seal,  it  was  a  beast  that  said,  "  Corne  and 
see  ; "  and  also  why  the  beasts  fell  down  and  worshipped 
God,  saying,  Amen,  Alleluia.  We  shall  see  that  the 
human  heart,  the  soul's  affections,  are  what  is  meant  by 
beasts ;  that  it  is  men  and  not  animals  that  do  these  things. 
Now,  how  like  the  thoughts  the  birds  fly  about  from 
spray  to  spray,  and  from  object  to  object ;  now  rising 
toward  heaven  and  now  sinking  to  earth !  One  bird  meets 
the  eye  and  is  gone.  We  know  not  whence  he  came,  nor 
where  he  went.  How  like  the  coming  and  going  thought ! 
Another  appears  dressed  in  beauty.  'Tis  like  the  poet's 
brilliant  thought,  flying  to  perch  in  the  verse  of  fame  or 
affection.  Another  bird  soars,  in  the  morning,  on  the 
wings  of  joy,  warbling  his  joyous  notes  like  the  happy 
Christian's  thought,  ascending  to  heaven  in  the  morning 
anthem.  Some  birds  descend  to  the  earth  and  feed  upon 
filth  ;  fit  symbols  of  the  dissolute  thoughts  of  the  grovel- 
ling mind,  indulging  in  sin.  Some  are  birds  of  night, 
which  cannot  bear  the  light  of  day.  They  denote  the  hid- 
den thoughts  of  the  thievish  soul,  afraid  to  appear  before 
the  eyes  of  men.  Some  birds  are  fierce  and  cruel,  armed 
with  beaks  and  claws  for  destruction.  They  point  to  the 
malicious  murderer's  thoughts,  seeking  carnage  and  gain. 
Other  birds  are  as  gentle  and  harmless  as  the  breath  of 
heaven,  and  as  joyous  as  the  music  of  spring,  correspond- 
ing to  the  thoughts  of  innocent  children  sporting  'mid  sun- 
shine and  flowers.  Some  birds,  in  their  union,  are  as 
affectionate  and  as  constant  to  each  other  as  mercy  and 
truth.  They  denote  the  conjugal  thoughts  of  faithful 
souls,  which  no  powers  can  sever  nor  adversities  weaken. 
Some  birds  are  as  black  as  darkness,  and  others  as  white 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACEOCOSM.  145 

as  the  light ;  while  others  are  mixed  with  black  and 
white.  How  perfectly  they  symbolize,  in  color,  the  false, 
the  true,  and  the  adulterated  thoughts  of  men !  Birds 
are  indeed  most  true  and  perfect  representatives  of 
thoughts,  and  throughout  the  Holy  Word  they  always 
denote  something  of  the  rational  or  intellectual,  element. 

It  is  remarkable  that  almost  everywhere  in  the  Word, 
where  birds  are  mentioned,  some  other  meaning  than  the 
literal  sense  must  be  given  them,  before  the  mind  can  be 
satisfied.  If  we  go  to  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  the 
first  place  where  "  winged  fowl "  is  mentioned,  we  are 
confounded  with  the  idea  that  the  birds  were  made  of 
water.  But  when  we  see  that  it  is  a  spiritual  history, 
and  that  water  there  corresponds  to  truth,  and  birds  to 
thoughts,  all  is  light :  the  mystery  is  fled.  For  we  see 
that  all  the  thoughts  of  the  people,  before  the  fall,  to 
which  birds  correspond,  must  have  been  true ;  for  the 
truths  of  the  Lord  brought  them  forth.  And  we  also  see 
that  all  the  aifections,  to  which  the  animals  correspond, 
must  have  been  good  ;  for  the  will  or  goodness  of  God,  to 
which  the  land  corresponds,  brought  them  forth.  And  as 
beasts  and  birds  are  there  used  merely  for  the  sake  of  the 
spiritual  senser  all  is  rational  and  clear. 

That  birds  denote  thoughts,  we  may  see  from  the  fol- 
lowing illustrations  :  In  Isaiah  our  Lord  says,  "  As  birds 
flying,  so  will  I  defend  Jerusalem."  This  is  the  only  way 
the  Lord  can  defend  Jerusalem  or  the  church.  When  the 
church  in  ourselves  or  in  the  community  is  in  danger,  we 
must  have  true  thoughts,  and  we  must  let  them  fly  from 
mind  to  mind,  or  the  church  will  not  be  defended. 
Again,  in  Jeremiah,  the  Lord  says  of  the  people,  "  How 
long  shall  the  land  mourn  for  the  wickedness  of  them  that 
dwell  therein  ?  the  beasts  are  consumed  and  the  birds." 
7 


14:6  THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM. 

Now,  spiritually  speaking,  this  was  actually  the  state  of 
the  Jewish  church ;  good  affections  and  true  thoughts 
were  gone  or  destroyed.  But  the  natural  beasts  and  birds 
were  on  the  earth,  as  usual.  And  the  Lord  again  says,  by 
the  same  prophet,  "  Mine  heritage  is  unto  Me  as  a  speck- 
led bird ;  the  birds  round  about  are  against  her."  The 
speckled  bird  denotes  an  adulterated  state  of  the  mind,  by 
mixing  up  truths  and  falsities  together :  the  white  spots 
indicating  truths,  and  the  black  ones,  falsities,  so  that  the 
thoughts  are  presented,  partly  true  and  partly  false — a 
speckled  bird.  A  church  or  a  professed  Christian  must 
be  true,  or  the  thoughts  of  the  people  round  about,  or  out 
of  the  church,  will  condemn  him.  The  community  will 
be  against  a  speckled  bird.  In  Revelations,  speaking  of 
the  church  as  a  city,  or  rather,  as  to  doctrine,  it  says, 
u  Babylon  the  Great  is  fallen,  is  fallen,  and  is  become  the 
habitation  of  devils,  and  the  hold  of  every  foul  spirit,  and 
a  cage  of  every  unclean  and  hateful  bird."  How  true  it 
is  that  a  fallen  and  corrupt  mind  is  a  cage  of  such  birds  ! 
Again,  the  Holy  Word  speaks  much  of  horses,  where 
every  one  must,  see  that  it  cannot  mean  natural  horses. 
Now  if  we  will  only  admit  that  the  term  horse  means  the 
understanding  of  knowledge,  and  read  the  Word  with  that 
idea  in  the  mind,  connected  with  other  correspondences, 
all  the  strange  passages  of  the  "Word,  where  the  term 
horse  is  used,  will  be  rationally  understood.  But  if  we 
should  adopt  any  other  signification,  the  passages  could 
not  be  understood.  "We  could  make  nothing  out  of  them. 
The  "Word  speaks  of  horses  and  their  riders.  The  horses 
signify  the  understanding  of  things,  whether  true  or  false. 
The  riders  are  the  persons  themselves  who  have  this  un- 
derstanding and  knowledge.  Without  the  understanding 
of  divine  truth  we  could  not  possibly  make  spiritual  prog- 


THE   MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  147 

ress.  We  rest  and  rely  upon  the  understanding  and  power 
of  the  truth,  as  we  rest  and  rely  upon  the  ability  and 
strength  of  our  horse  ;  and  there  is  a  perfect  correspon- 
dence between  them.  But  if,  instead  of  the  truth,  our 
understanding  be  filled  with  false,  absurd  and  evil  views, 
it  will  be  like  a  wild,  frantic,  ungovernable  horse,  leaping 
all  the  fences  or  rules  of  law  and  order,  starting  at  every 
new  object,  getting  into  mud  and  mire,  and  often  jeopar- 
dizing our  life  on  the  way.  A  man  with  such  a  mind 
needs  to  keep  a  strong  bit  and  a  straight  rein  over  his 
headstrong  understanding,  or  it  will  surely  run  away  with 
him,  and  throw  him  among  the  rocks  of  error,  on  the 
wayside  of  destruction,  or  down  the  precipice  of  vice. 

Isrow,  in  prophesying  of  the  future  dark  state  of  the 
Jewish  church,  it  says,  in  Zechariah  xii,  4,  "  In  that  day, 
saith  Jehovah,  I  will  smite  every  horse  with  astonishment, 
and  his  rider  with  madness  :  and  I  will  open  mine  eyes 
upon  the  house  of  Judah,  and  I  will  smite  every  horse  of 
the  people  with  blindness."  This  prophecy  has  reference 
to  the  state  of  the  Jewish  church  when  the  Lord  should 
come  in  the  flesh,  and  is  already  fulfilled  ;  and  yet  every 
natural  horse  was  not  smitten  with  astonishment  and 
blindness.  But  the  understandings  of  the  Jews  became 
astonished,  and  were  blind  to  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  ; 
and  they  remain  so  to  this  day.* 

The  correspondence,  in  the  Word,  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom  to  the  human  mind  is  no  less  striking  than  that 
of  the  animal  ;  and  it  is  as  little  understood  without  the 
spiritual  sense.  It  generally  refers  to  things  of  the  natural 
mind  :  the  grass  upon  which  animals  feed  denoting  natu- 
ral good,  upon  which  the  affections  live  ;  and  the  trees, 

*  See  SILVER'S  Lectures,  Chapter  VI,  explaining  the  horses',  coming  out 
of  the  book.    Rev.  vi. 


or 
TJHI7BESIT7 


148  THE   MICROCOSM   AND  THE   MACROCOSM. 

whose  fruits  are  for  man,  denote  more  elevated  principles 
of  the  mind  ;  thorns,  thistles,  nettles,  briers,  brambles  and 
tares  denoting  false  and  evil  principles ;  and  corn  and 
grain,  generally,  good  principles. 

Much  is  said  in  the  Word  of  trees.  They  often  denote 
men,  arid  sometimes  God.  By  the  Tree  of  Life  is  meant 
the  Lord.  In  Judges  ix,  8-15,  the  trees  are  represented 
as  going  out  to  choose  a  king  over  them ;  and  the  trees 
throughout  the  parable  denote  people  ;  and  the  subject  is 
beautifully  applicable  to  men  now.  (Explained  in  SIL- 
VER'S Lectures,  chap,  vii.)  Great  use  is  made,  in  the 
"Word,  of  the  olive,  the  vine  and  the  fig-tree.  In  the  31st 
chapter  of  Ezekiel,  a  variety  of  trees  are  brought  up,  de- 
noting men  or  principles  of  the  mind.  Here  Pharaoh  is 
called  the  Assyrian,  and  also  a  cedar  of  Lebanon.  And 
he  is  represented  as  a  wonderful  tree ;  the  other  trees 
envy  him,  and  some  faint,  and  some  go  to  hell ;  and  all 
the  fowls  of  heaven  and  beasts  of  the  field  are  connected 
with  him.  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  represents  the  natural 
man  in  the  love  of  science,  and  progressing  in  scientific 
wisdom  and  knowledge,  and  thereby  gaining  great  power 
and  influence,  becoming  envied  and  admired  for  his  vast 
acquirements  and  superior  excellence,  until  he  becomes 
great  in  his  own  estimation,  inflated  with  self-love,  and 
thus  he  falls  into  ruinous  evils.  The  various  conditions 
of  the  trees,  and  birds  and  beasts,  and  the  waters,  show 
the  operations  of  the  various  principles  of  his  mind  to 
which  these  natural  things  correspond,  as  he  rises  to  the 
zenith  of  his  glory,  and  falls  into  darkness  and  death. 
And  in  the  sure  language  of  God  we  may  find  it  exceed- 
ingly interesting  and  instructive,  as  applicable  to  our 
natural  man,  by  the  rules  of  analogy.  The  spiritual  SCMI-I- 
is  highly  instructive  ;  but  we  have  not  room  to  explain  it. 


THE  MICROCOSM   AND   THE   MACROCOSM.  149 

Let  us  now  glance  at  the  similitude  between  the  earth 
and  the  mind.  The  highest  symbol  of  God  in  any  one 
thing,  except  the  human  mind — the  highest  symbol  of 
Him  in  nature — is  the  sun  ;  the  heat  denoting  His  love, 
the  light,  His  wisdom,  and  their  action,  His  power.  And 
when  we  consider  the  sun  as  corresponding  to  God  and 
the  earth  to  man,  we  have  a  broad  field  for  contempla- 
tion, and  one  which  throws  much  light  upon  the  under- 
standing of  the  Holy  Word.  The  first  general  division 
of  the  earth  is  into  land  and  water ;  that  of  the  mind,  into 
will  and  understanding.  The  land  denotes  the  good  or 
evil  ground  of  the  will ;  and  the  water,  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  the  understanding.  The  land  can  produce  noth- 
ing without  water  :  nor  can  the  will,  without  the  under- 
standing;  goodness  can  do  nothing  without  truth,  nor 
evil,  without  falsity.  But  even  the  land  and  water  to- 
gether can  produce  nothing  of  themselves,  alone.  They 
must  have  the  heat  and  light  of  the  sun.  So  also  must 
the  will  and  understanding  of  man  have  the  love  and 
wisdom  of  God — the  divine  influx — or  they  can  do  noth- 
ing. The  land  and  water  of  the  earth  denote  the  will  and 
understanding  of  the  external  mind,  or  the  natural  good 
and  truth  which  are  in  them.  To  be  truly  alive  and  pro- 
ductive in  heavenly  things,  this  natural  will  and  under- 
standing must  receive  spiritual  goods  and  truths  from  the 
internal  mind.  This  internal  mind  is  represented  by  the 
natural  heavens,  with  the  sun,  moon  and  stars :  the  sun 
denoting  the  Lord,  the  moon,  faith  in  Him,  and-  the  stars, 
knowledges  of  His  commandments.  And  how  forcibly 
does  the  power  of  these  divine  principles,  from  our  inter- 
nal mind  operating  upon  our  external,  correspond  to  the 
influence  of  those  heavenly  bodies  upon  the  earth,  with- 
out which  it  would  be  utterly  unfruitful. 


150  THE  MICROCOSM  AND   THE  MACROCOSM. 

Thus  the  correspondence  between  the  physical  uni- 
verse and  the  human  mind  is  everywhere  most  perfect, 
not  only  in  generals  but  in  particulars.  And  it  is  neces- 
sarily so,  because  the  elements  of  the  human  mind  are  the 
living  elements  of  the  universe,  by  regular  influx.  These 
are  the  glorious  truths  which  will  yet  lift  the  veil  from 
human  hearts  and  minds,  and  bring  the  world  together  in 
wisdom  and  love.  Then  will  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea,  and  tears  will 
be  wiped  from  off  all  faces. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


NUMBERS. 


NUMBERS,  like  everything  else  of  the  Word,  always 
have  a  spiritual  signification  touching  the  soul  or  life, 
which  is  their  essential  meaning.  Sometimes  they  mean 
also  what  is  numerically  expressed  in  the  literal  sense, 
and  sometimes  they  do  not,  but  can  only  be  understood 
in  the  spiritual  sense.  To  number  people  or  things  is  to 
ascertain  their  general  qualities. 

Now,  in  order  to  prepare  our  minds  for  looking  into 
the  spiritual  signification  of  numbers,  let  us  first  throw 
our  thoughts  back  to  the  primeval  age,  when  everything 
seen,  said,  or  done,  meant  and  declared  something  mental 
or  spiritual.  "We  shall  then  see  that  numbers  would 
naturally  and  necessarily  be  used  to  denote  the  qualities 
of  thoughts,  feelings,  and  principles. 

And  beginning  with  number  One,  it  would  of  course 
mean  God :  He  is  First  of  all ;  First  in  quality  and  in 
quantity ;  the  All  in  all.  And  this  quality-signification 
of  number  one  has  never  been  wholly  lost.  Thus,  we  say 
of  a  person,  he  is  the  first  man  in  town,  or  the  first 
scholar  in  the  class.  He  may  have  been  the  last  man 
that  moved  into  town,  and  the  last  that  entered  the  class. 


152  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF  NUMBERS. 

Moreover,  when  we  leave  individuals  and  come  to 
principles  or  elements,  Love  is  number  One.  It  is  the 
Life  principle,  the  spring  of  all  action.  And  next  to 
Love  is  Wisdom.  Wisdom  is  number  Two.  But  it  in- 
volves number  One.  We  cannot  have  two  things  with- 
out having  one.  We  cannot  be  truly  wise  without  being 
good.  Two,  therefore,  denotes  the  dual  principle,  and 
signifies  marriage,  or  Love  and  Wisdom,  or  goodness  and 
truth  in  union.  Next  to  Love  and  Wisdom  is  Power. 
Power  is  number  Three.  But  it  involves  the  other  two. 
We  cannot  have  three  things  without  the  two.  We  can- 
not have  power  without  having  love  and  wisdom,  or  will 
and  understanding,  either  in  true  or  in  inverted  order. 
Power,  therefore,  involves  everything  that  is  in  it.  Con- 
sequently the  number  Three  signifies  all,  fulness,  perfec- 
tion. 

Yery  many  passages  can  be  cited  from  the  Word  to 
sustain  these  statements.  As  in  John  x,  30,  "  I  and  My 
Father  are  One."  The  Father  is  Love;  the  Son,  or 
Word,  is  Truth.  And  in  Deuteronomy  vi,  4,  "  Hear,  O 
Israel :  Jehovah  our  God  is  One  Jehovah."  Here  the 
phrase  Jehovah  our  God  means  the  Divine  Love  and  the 
Divine  Wisdom,  which  are  declared  to  be  One.  In  all 
cases  where  God  is  mentioned  by  two  names,  His  Love 
and  Wisdom  are  meant.  By  knowing  this,  much  light  is 
seen.  So  the  phrase  Jesus  Christ  means  the  Divine  Love 
and  Wisdom,  or  Goodness  and  Truth.  Again,  in  Psalm 
xxvii,  4,  u  One  thing  have  I  desired  of  the  Lord,  that  will 
I  seek  after ;  that  I  may  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord 
all  the  days  of  my  life,  to  behold  the  beauty  of  the  Lord, 
and  to  inquire  in  His  temple."  Here  the  one  thing  de- 
sired involves  three  things,  which  it  requires  the  union  of 
will,  understanding,  and  action  to  accomplish.  It  is  i!i< 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF  NUMBERS.  153 

same  in  Mark  x,  21 :  "  One  thing  thou  lackest :  go  thy 
way,  sell  whatsoever  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor." 
One  thing  involves  the  three.  A  volume  could  be  cited 
to  sustain  this  truth. 

Four,  being  the  square  of  two,  denotes  also  union  ; 
and  consequently  the  fulness  of  goods  and  truths,  or  evils 
and  falsities,  in  the  complex :  as  in  Zechariah  vi,  1, 
"  And  I  turned,  and  lifted  up  mine  eyes,  and  looked,  and 
behold,  there  came  four  chariots  out  from  between  two 
mountains."  Now  this  relates  solely  to  things  of  the 
mind.  It  is  a  vision  of  the  coining  of  the  church  into 
men.  Chariots  denote  doctrines :  four  denotes  fulness, 
and  also  conjunction  of  goodness  and  truth  therein:  a. 
mountain  denotes  love ;  two  mountains,  love  to  God  and 
the  neighbor.  By  the  chariots  being  drawn  by  horses  is 
meant  that  the  doctrines  were  in  the  understanding  ;  com- 
ing from  the  mountains  shows  that  they  go  forth  from 
the  heart.  The  whole  vision  is  exceedingly  beautiful, 
teaching  the  way  of  life ;  but  we  are  now  only  upon 
numbers,  and  have  not  room  to  give  further  illustration. 

The  number  Ten  denotes  all  a  man  has.  Something 
of  its  quality-signification  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  of 
man's  having  ten  fingers  and  ten  toes.  It  suggested  the 
origin  and  rule  for  counting  by  tens.  Therefore,  any 
number  obtained  by  adding  ciphers  to  ten,  as  100,  1,000, 
and  so  forth,  signifies  the  same  as  ten,  only  extending 
more  into  particulars.  Thus  the  ten  commandments  in- 
clude the  whole  law — all.  And  a  thousand  command- 
ments would  mean  not  only  what  was  in  the  ten,  but 
would  direct  the  thoughts  to  the  particular  command- 
ments everywhere  in  the  Word. 

The  number  Five,  the  half  of  ten,  sometimes  signifies 
the  same  as  ten,  and  sometimes  a  few,  or  much,  or  little, 
7* 


154  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

according  to  the  subject  treated  of  and  the  manner  used. 
As  in  Matthew  xxv,  1,  2,  "  Then  shall  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  be  likened  unto  ten  virgins,  which  took  their 
lamps  and  went  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom.  And  five 
of  them  were  wise,  and  five  were  foolish."  Here  the 
Bridegroom  is  the  Lord,  as  the  Word ;  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  the  church ;  the  ten  virgins  are  all  the  mem- 
bers, without  regard  to  numbers ;  the  five  wise  ones  are 
all,  without  regard  to  numbers,  who  loved  the  truth  ;  and 
the  five  foolish  are  all  who  do  not  love  the  truth  :  for 
truth,  in  the  understanding,  is  the  lamp,  and  love  of  that 
truth,  in  the  will,  is  the  oil  in  the  vessel  for  the  lamp. 
The  reason  the  wise  did  not  give  to  the  foolish  of  their  oil 
is,  no  one  can  be  good  in  borrowed  love.  They  must  go 
and  buy  for  themselves,  which  is  done  by  giving  up  the 
love  of  deception,  and  obtaining  the  love  of  the  truth. 

Kow,  a  few  simple  rules  will  aid  a  person  very  much 
to  understand  the  Word,  and  particularly  with  regard  to 
large  numbers.  For  example  :  from  number  two  arise  4, 
8,  16,  400,  800,  1,600,  4,000,  8,000,  16,000,  and  so  forth ; 
which  numbers  signify  the  same  as  two,  but  direct  the 
thoughts  more  into  particulars.  From  three  arise  6,  9, 
12,  24,  72,  144,  1,440,  144,000 ;  also  30,  300,  3,000 ;  60, 
600,  6,000,  and  so  forth  ;  which  numbers  signify  the  same 
as  three,  but  point  to  particulars.  From  five  arise  10, 
100,  1,000,  10,000;  also  50,  500,  5,000,  and  so  forth; 
which  numbers  signify  the  same  as  five,  but  direct  to  par- 
ticulars. From  seven  arise  14,  70,  700,  7,000,  70,000, 
which  numbers  signify  the  same  as  seven,  pointing  to 
particulars. 

Seven  is  a  number  signifying  holiness,  or  a  state  of 
rest  after  regeneration.  Days  or  times,  in  the  Word, 
always  denote  states  of  mind.  The  six  days  of  creation 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS.  155 

denote  the  states  through  which  we  pass  in  being  regen- 
erated. And  when  the  battles  are  all  fought,  and  the 
victories  won,  we  come  to  the  sabbath  of  rest. 

Now  we  have  expressed  the  meaning  of  the  four  sim- 
ple and  radical  numbers,  two,  three,  five,  and  seven,  from 
which  all  larger  numbers  arise,  either  by  multiplication 
or  addition,  or  by  both  together.  By  having  a  knowl- 
edge, therefore,  of  the  signification  of  only  the  first  ten 
numbers,  and  which  we  have  given,  the  truth  of  which, 
from  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  "Word,  may  be  satisfac- 
torily proved,  we  may  ascertain  something  of  the  mean- 
ing of  any  larger  number  in  the  Word,  by  reducing  it  to 
the  simple,  primitive,  or  radical  number,  so  that  it  is  not 
so  difficult  to  ascertain  something  about  the  spiritual 
meaning  of  numbers  as  might  at  first  be  supposed ;  and 
particularly  when  we  are  prepared  to  understand  the 
spiritual  meaning  of  the  other  parts  of  the  subject  where 
the  numbers  are  used. 

In  verification  of  these  general  statements  we  will 
adduce  a  few  examples,  commencing  with  number 
Twelve,  which  is  the  common  multiple  of  three  and  four. 
Three,  we  have  seen,  denotes  fulness  and  perfection,  em- 
bracing the  triune  elements  of  God  Himself :  four  is  the 
square  of  two — the  dual  number — which  denotes  the 
union  of  goodness  and  truth.  Twelve,  therefore,  the 
product  of  three  and  four,  must,  from  the  very  qualities 
they  express,  denote  all  goods  and  truths  in  the  complex. 
And  this  is  fully  sustained  by  the  very  prominent  use 
made  of  it  in  the  Word. 

There  were  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  meaning  all  the 
church  of  God,  the  elements  of  which  are  goods  and 
truths.  Moses  built  an  altar  on  twelve  pillars.  Pillars 
signify  truths,  and  altar,  worship  ;  denoting  that  worship 


156  THE   CORRESPONDENCE    OF    NUMBERS. 

should  be  based  on  all  truths.  The  breastplate  of  Aaron, 
the  High  Priest,  had  twelve  precious  stones,  containing 
the  names  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  Precious  stones 
denote  truths ;  twelve,  all  goods  and  truths ;  the  plate 
worn  over  the  breast  denotes  that  the  truths  should  come 
from  the  heart.  Joshua  set  up  twelve  stones  from  the 
river  Jordan,  as  a  monumental  memorial  of  the  crossing, 
which  signifies  that,  with  all  goods  and  truths'  in  the 
mind,  men  will  never  forget  God's  mercies.  In  the  tem- 
ple, they  built  a  sea  or  font  for  baptism,  and  set  it  upon 
twelve  oxen.  Oxen  denote  good  affections,  and  there 
being  twelve  supporting  the  water,  which  denotes  truth, 
signifies  that  all  goods  and  truths  attending  the  washing 
of  regeneration,  must  come  from  the  affections.  There 
were  twelve  apostles,  who  represented  all  truths  of  the 
Word.  In  the  crown  of  the  woman,  who  denotes  the 
church,  there  were  twelve  stars,  denoting  all  truths  in  the 
understanding.  The  Holy  City  has  twelve  foundations 
of  stones,  denoting  that  it  is  based  on  all  truths ;  and 
twelve  gates,  and  at  the  gates  twelve  angels,  which  teach 
that  we  enter  by  means  of  truths  and  goods. 

Again,  forty  is  a  number  much  used.  And  as  it  is 
the  product  of  four  multiplied  by  ten,  we  see  that  it  rep- 
resents fulness,  extending  to  particulars  in  man,  and  would 
denote  all  the  qualities  and  states  of  mind  we  pass  through 
in  the  accomplishment  of  any  mental  revolution. 

Now,  the  flood  is  said  to  have  been  brought  on  by  a 
rain  of  forty  days  and  forty  nights ;  and  the  narrative  de- 
clares that  the  flood  was  forty  days  upon  the  earth.  And 
yet  the  water  is  said  to  have  prevailed  a  much  longer 
time.  Now  the  days  denote  states  of  mind ;  and  forty 
^ys  mean  all  the  states  through  which  that  people  passed 
from  the  commencement  of  the  fall  until  their  minds 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS.  157 

were  inundated  with  falsities.  Thus  in  Numbers  it  is 
written,  "  Ye  shall  bear  your  iniquity  forty  years :  ye 
shall  search  the  land  forty  days  ; "  which  means  through 
all  the  states  of  their  trials.  The  Psalms  are  a  full 
prophecy  of  the  states  through  which  the  Lord's  assumed 
nature  passed,  on  the  earth,  to  its  glorification.  And  in 
them  He  says  of  the  Israelites,  "  Forty  years  long  was  I 
grieved  with  this  generation."  Now,  what  does  He 
mean  ?  He  did  not  live  forty  years  on  the  earth.  It 
means,  then,  all  His  states  of  temptation.  Ezekiel  was 
commanded  to  lie  forty  days  upon  his  right  side,  to  bear 
the  iniquity  of  the  house  of  Judah.  The  right  side  has 
relation  to  goodness,  the  left  side,  to  truth.  To  lie  upon 
the  right  side  means  to  rest  or  rely  upon  the  goodness  of 
God,  and  forty  days  would  be  during  all  the  states  the 
church  might  pass  through  until  their  iniquity  was 
passed  away.  Herein  it  is  obvious  why  it  was  ordained, 
in  Deuteronomy,  that  a  wicked  man  should  be  beaten 
with  forty  stripes.  It  means  that  he  would  receive  pun- 
ishment for  all  his  sins.  And  it  is  said  that  Moses  abode 
in  the  mount  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  neither  did  he 
eat  bread  nor  drink  water,  praying  for  the  people.  And 
so,  the  Lord  was  tempted  in  the  wilderness  forty  days : 
and  the  children  of  Israel  were  forty  years  in  the  wilder- 
ness, to  humble  them  and  to  prove  them.  But  it  is  by 
no  means  certain  that  the  Israelites  were  there  forty 
years,  or  that  the  Lord  was  there  forty  days,  or  that 
Moses  wras  praying  forty  days  and  nights  without  eating 
bread  or  drinking  water.  For  forty  here  means,  essen- 
tially, all  the  states  of  trial  through  which  they  passed. 

Again,  the  Lord  says,  "  As  the  hosts  of  heaven  cannot 
be  numbered,  neither  the  sand  of  the  sea  measured,  so 
will  I  multiply  the  seed  of  David,  My  servant."  Now, 


158  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

this  cannot  be  a  natural  fact,  and  can  only  be  understood 
spiritually,  by  looking  at  David  as  the  representative  of 
the  Lord,  as  the  Word ;  the  Truths  of  which  are  multi- 
plied indefinitely,  adapting  themselves  to  the  states  of  all 
people. 

The  Lord  is  said  to  tell  the  number  of  the  stars,  and 
to  call  them  all  by  their  names.  To  number  or  count 
means  to  examine  the  qualities  of  things,  and  see  how 
good  or  how  true  they  are.  To  number  the  stars  is  to 
examine  the  truths  of  the  human  mind,  the  stars  of  our 
mental  heaven,  and  see  their  quality.  He  is  said  to 
bring  out  the  hosts  of  heaven  by  number ;  which  means 
that  He  arranges  all  heavenly  principles  in  the  mind,  ac- 
cording to  their  quality. 

Again,  the  Lord  says,  through  John,  "  Here  is  wis- 
dom. Let  him  that  hath  understanding  count  the  number 
of  the  beast :  for  it  is  the  number  of  a  man ;  and  his 
number  is  Six  hundred  three  score  and  six."  (Rev.  xiii, 
18.)  Here  is  indeed  wisdom :  for  none  can  count  the 
number  of  the  beast  but  him  that  hath  understanding. 
And  to  have  understanding  is  to  see  why  his  number  is 
666,  and  also  why  this  is  the  number  of  a  man.  To  have 
understanding  in  this  matter  is  to  know  the  spiritual  sense. 

Now,  the  quality  of  the  human  mind  is  the  thing  here 
inquired  after.  For  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word  treats 
of  nothing  else  but  the  Divine  and  human  minds.  And 
the  mind  of  man  is  the  complex  of  all  created  things. 
He  is  called  a  least  on  account  of  his  natural  appetites 
and  passions.  He  is  called  a  man  on  account  of  his 
reason  and  intellect.  It  is  his  rational  faculty  which  dis- 
tinguishes him  from  the  beast,  and  gives  him  the  appella- 
tion of  man  ;  for  the  beasts  are  not  endowed  with  reason. 

"  Here  is  wisdom.     Let  him  that  hath  understanding 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS.  159 

count  the  number  of  the  beast :  for  it  is  the  number  of  a 
man."  To  count  the  number  of  the  beast  is  to  ascertain 
the  quality  of  man's  appetites  and  passions.  To  count 
the  number  of  the  man  is  to  ascertain  the  quality  of  his 
reason  and  judgment.  To  have  the  number  of  the  beast 
the  same  as  the  number  of  the  man,  is  to  have  his  reason 
and  judgment  of  the  same  quality  as  his  appetites  and 
p.assions ;  which  is  to  have  his  appetites  and  passions  such 
as  his  reason  and  judgment  approve.  All  this  is  readily 
seen  by  any  one  who  will  candidly  seek  the  spiritual 
sense  of  the  subject.  But  why  the  number  was  found  to 
be  666  is  not  so  easily  seen.  But,  by  going  back  to  the 
simple  or  radical  numbers,  whose  meaning  is  fixed  and 
certain,  we  find  that  two  multiplied  by  three  makes  six  ; 
and  six,  having  the  qualities  of  both  two  and  three,  would 
denote  all  goods  and  truths,  the  same  as  twelve :  and  666 
would  mean  the  same  extended  to  every  particular  and 
quality  of  the  mind.  But  correspondences  are  to  be 
taken  either  in  a  good  sense  or  a  bad  sense,  according  to 
the  subject-matter  treated  of;  and  the  way  they  should 
be  taken  is  readily  seen.  Now  we  find  that  the  subject 
of  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Revelation  is  the  state  of  a 
fallen  church,  or  of  a  depraved  and  beastly  mind,  desti- 
tute of  goods  and  truths ;  therefore,  the  number  666  is 
expressed  in  a  bad  sense,  and  denotes  that  the  quality  of 
the  man  has  fallen  to  the  depraved  quality  of  the  beast, 
and  consequently,  in  this  instance,  that  number,  instead 
of  meaning  all  goods  and  truths,  extending  to  all  the  par- 
ticulars and  qualities  of  life,  means  all  evils  and  falsities, 
extending  throughout  the  whole  man  or  fallen  church. 

Again,  in  Genesis  vi,  3,  it  is  said  of  man,  that  "  his 
days  shall  be  an  hundred  and  twenty  years"  And,  from 
a  literal,  sensual  conclusion,  it  would  be  quite  natural  to 


160  THE    CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

suppose  that,  because  of  the  wickedness  of  the  people, 
God  had  determined  to  cut  down  their  long  lives  to  the 
period  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years :  or,  from  some 
cause  or  other,  their  days  were  thereafter  to  be  limited  to 
that  number.  But  this  seems  not  to  be  the  fact.  For, 
at  the  time  the  Divine  decree  was  passed,  E~oah  is  said 
to  be  five  hundred  years  old.  (Gen.  v,  32.)  Yet  he  lived 
another  hundred  years,  till  the  flood  (chap,  vii,  6,  11), 
and  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  it :  in  all,  nine 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  (Chap,  ix,  28,  29.)  Shem  also 
lived  six  hundred  years  (chap,  xi,  10,  11) ;  Arphaxad, 
four  hundred  and  forty-three  years ;  Peleg,  two  hundred 
and  thirty-nine  years  ;  Eeu,  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  ; 
Senig,  two  hundred  and  thirt}^ ;  and  many  others  overran 
the  one  hundred  and  twenty  years. 

ISTow,  nothing  but  the  spiritual  sense  can  reconcile 
such  apparent  discrepancies.  Bi>t  when  we  see  that  the 
number  one  hundred  and  twenty  arises  from  the  multi- 
plication of  ten  by  twelve,  and  look  at  the  spiritual 
meaning,  all  is  plain.  For,  as  ten  denotes  all  the  prin- 
ciples of  good  which  the  people  had,  and  twelve  all  the 
goods  and  truths  which  they  could  receive,  and  which  the 
Lord  would  adapt  to  their  states  and  wants ;  therefore, 
the  promise  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years'  life,  in- 
stead of  foreshadowing  evil,  was  a  glorious  promise,  be- 
cause it  declared  that,  notwithstanding  the  dark  and  dead 
state  of  the  people,  just  before  the  flood,  yet  God  would 
give  them  new  life  or  new  qualities ;  thus  pointing  to  a 
new  or  Noatic  state  of  the  church,  whereby  He  would 
raise  them  above  the  falses  and  evils  that  threatened 
universal  destruction,  and  would  give  them  the  qualities 
of  spiritual  life,  denoted  by  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years,  but  which  had  no  reference  whatever  to  time. 


THE    CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS.  161 

Thus,  by  a  knowledge  of  the  spiritual  signification  of 
numbers,  and  of  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  scripture  imme- 
diately connected  with  them,  all  the  objections,  with  re- 
gard to  numbers,  which  Dr.  Colenso  or  any  others  may 
raise  against  the  entire  truthfulness  and  holiness  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  given  in  their  original  tongues,  are  entirely 
groundless,  because  they  reach  not  the  Word  itself.  Their 
energies  are  spent  in  the  shades  of  appearances,  which  the 
spiritual  Light  of  the  Word,  when  seen,  readily  dispels, 
leaving  even  the  literal  sense  luminous  and  beautiful  with 
the  heavenly  light,  of  which  it  is  the  perfect  vessel  and 
medium. 

And  as  with  numbers,  so  with  weights  and  measures. 
They  all  have  a  spiritual  signification,  and  are  used  to 
express  states  and  qualities  of  the  mind.  And  so  also  are 
all  temples,  tabernacles,  altars,  and  works  of  art,  men- 
tioned in  the  Word. 

To  weigh  a  mental  thing  is  to  find  out  how  good  it  is. 
To  be  weighed  in  a  balance  and  found  wanting,  is  to  have 
no  goodness.  To  measure  a  principle  of  the  mind  is  to 
find  out  how  true  it  is. 

Thus,  Kevelation  xxi,  17,  the  angel  measured  the  wall 
of  the  city  and  found  it  to  be  "  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  cubits  according  to  the  measure  of  a  man,  that  is,  of 
the  angel.' '  Now,  this  is  so  said  because  the  number 
twelve  denotes  all  goods  and  truths ;  and  one  hundred 
and  forty-four,  being  the  square  of  twelve,  means  the 
same  as  twelve,  extending  to  particulars.  Now,  goods 
and  truths,  affectionately  and  rationally  received  into  the 
mind,  are  what  constitute  a  true  man  or  an  angel. 
Therefore,  one  hundred  and  forty-four,  meaning  all  goods 
and  truths,  would  be  his  measure,  or  denote  his  quality. 
Any  one  may  see  that  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  natural 


162  THE    CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

things.  The  city  descends  from  God,  out  of  heaven,  into 
the  human  rnind.  By  this  city  is  meant  the  doctrines 
of  the  Word,  in  their  spiritual  signification.  By  its  meas- 
ure being  twelve  thousand  furlongs,  is  meant  that  the 
doctrines  comprise  all  truths,  expressed  in  laws  and  rules 
of  action,  reaching  every  circumstance  and  condition  in 
life.  This  is  because  twelve  denotes  fulness  of  all  goods 
and  truths,  and  ten,  one  hundred,  or  one  thousand,  de- 
notes all  a  man  has  or  can  receive.  Therefore,  the  city 

also  is  the  measure  of  a  man,  because  these  doctrines  in 

• 

the  mind  would  show  what  a  man's  qualities  are,  or  what 
his  measure  is.  And  by  "  the  length,  and  the  breadth, 
and  the  height "  of  the  city  being  equal,  we  are  taught 
tliat  the  doctrines  are  equally  good,  true,  and  useful. 
Here  it  is  remarkable  that  the  wall  which  surrounds  the 
city  measures  only  one  hundred  and  forty-four  cubits, 
while  the  city,  within  the  wall,  is  the  enormous  size  of 
twelve  thousand  furlongs  square.  Thus  the  literal  sense 
alone  is  a  dense  cloud  of  darkness.  But  when  we  behold 
the  spiritual  sense — the  Lord,  as  the  "Word,  coming  in 
this  cloud — all  is  luminous,  beautiful,  and  rational. 

Now,  did  Bishop  Colenso  see  this  spiritual  sense  per- 
vading the  entire  Word  of  God,  filling  it  with  spirit  and 
life,  as  the  soul  fills  the  body,  how  would  the  atmosphere 
of  his  mind  clear  up,  and  the  heart  glow  with  fresh  grati- 
tude and  love  to  the  Heavenly  Father,  as  his  spirit  should 
read  in  every  sentence  clear,  useful,  and  heavenly  instruc- 
tion, offering  to  the  hungry  soul  the  blessed  food  of  an- 
gels !  And  how  gladly  would  he  publish  a  new  version 
of  "The  Pentateuch  and  Book  of  Joshua  Critically  Ex- 
amined" with  pages  glowing  with  new  light,  and  saying 
with  joy  and  gladness,  to  the  readers  of  his  first  book, 
that  die  sacred  Scriptures  are  the  sure  words  of  the  All- 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF  NUMBERS.  163 

Wise  God,  .faithfully  handed  down,  without  contradiction 
or  error.  Then,  whenever  he  should  read  the  history  of 
"  the  family  of  Judah"  of  which  he  speaks  in  chapter  ii, 
he  would  not  be  seeking  discrepancies  in  the  letter,  but 
the  life  and  harmony  of  the  spirit.  In  what  is  said  of 
their  numbers  and  travels,  his  thoughts  would  not  be 
dwelling  upon  the  count  and  movement  of  their  bodies, 
but  upon  the  qualities  and  states  of  human  souls,  which 
the  numbers  and  movements  signify  Whenever  he 
should  read  therein,  "  Thy  fathers  went  down  into  Egypt 
writh  three-score  and  ten  persons  :  and  now  the  Lord  thy 
God  hath  made  thee  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multi- 
tude," he  would  look  into  the  expression,  "  three-score  and 
ten"  not  for  the  number  of  persons,  but  for  the  goods  and 
truths  of  the  £oul  which  the  number  70  signifies  ;  and  he 
would  look  into  the  expression,  "stars  of  heaven  for  mul- 
titude" for  the  great  increase  of  heavenly  truths  with 
which  they  had  been  blessed :  for  he  would  see  at  once 
that,  as  persons,  they  could  not  have  become  as  the  natu- 
ral stars  for  multitude ;  while,  as  to  the  truths  of  the 
Word,  to  which  stars  correspond,  they  could  be  so ;  for 
the  sacred  truths  are  not  only  bright,  but  innumerable. 
And  that  history  would  then  become  to  him  the  Word  of 
God,  and  teach  his  soul  practical  lessons  of  regeneration, 
as  doth  all  scripture  when  the  spiritual  sense  is  seen. 

And  the  mystery  which  he  sees  in  chapter  iv,  with 
regard  to  u  the  size  of  the  court  of  the  tabernacle  compared 
with  the  number  of  the  congregation"  would  be  removed 
by  the  light  of  the  internal  sense.  For  the  human  mind 
is  the  true  tabernacle  of  God,  and  is  called  in  the  Word 
"  the  temple  of  the  Lord."  And  all  the  temples  and 
tabernacles,  cities  and  courts,  mentioned  in  the  Word, 
with  all  their  measurements,  dimensions,  localities,  ves- 


164  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

sels?  ornaments,  and  uses,  denote  the  minds  .of  men,  or 
qualities  and  things  of  the  mind.  And,  as  the  Bishop 
should  look  into  the  world  of  mind  for  the  things  signi- 
fied by  courts,  tabernacles,  and  numbers,  he  would  find 
this  scripture  "  profitable  for  doctrine  .  .  .  and  in- 
struction in  righteousness,"  and  applicable  to  his  own 
mind,  or  to  any  number  of  people  at  any  time,  who 
would  look  to  the  Lord  for  light  and  life. 

Wherever  the  court  and  tabernacle  are  mentioned,  the 
tabernacle  denotes  the  internal  mind  of  man,  and  the 
court  the  external  mind  ;  and  by  the  door  of  the  taberna- 
cle is  meant  faith  in  the  truth.  Therefore  the  Lord  says 
He  is  THE  DOOR,  because  He  is  the  truth  of  faith,  or  is  the 
"Word,  in  the  understanding,  believed.  And  by  the  as- 
sembling of  all  the  congregation  at  the  door  of  the  taber- 
nacle, would  be  meant  the  bringing  together  of  all  the 
affections  and  principles  of  the  mind  of  an  individual  or 
of  a  community  before  the  Lord,  in  true  faith,  that  the 
tabernacle  of  the  soul  might  be  entered  by  the  Lord,  as 
the  "Word,  through  the  door  of  faith,  for  the  establish- 
ment of  His  kingdom.  In  this  way  we  become  prepared 
to  receive  the  Lord  or  the  truth  through  the  court  or  ex- 
ternal mind,  into  the  tabernacle  or.  internal  mind,  where, 
in  the  light  of  that  truth,  we  may  begin  truly  to  read  and 
know  ourselves,  and  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  to  become 
new  creatures.  In  this  way  the  minds  of  men  are  to  be- 
come the  temples  of  the  Lord. 

And  the  width  of  the  tabernacle  being  ten  cubits,  and 
the  length  thirty  cubits,  and  the  court  being  one  hundred 
cubits  in  length,  and  fifty  in  breadth,  all  these  numbers 
show  at  once  what  should  be  the  quality  of  the  internal 
and  external  minds  in  order  to  receive  tlin  Lord  and  be 


THE   COBKESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS.  165 

prepared  for  heaven.  For  these  numbers  denote  fulness 
of  goods  and  truths. 

And  how  much  the  value  of  the  Holy  Word  is  en- 
hanced when  we  see  that  it  is  not  given  merely  to  direct 
the  construction  and  arrangement  of  material  things,  and 
to  prompt  our  actions  with  regard  to  them  ;  but  to  teach 
the  soul,  through  their  forms,  sizes,  and  uses,  the  true 
qualities  of  the  heart  and  the  living  lessons  of  the  "Word  ; 
thus  showing  the  proper  states  of  mind  necessary  for  true 
worship,  and  for  the  work  of  regeneration  ! 

But  here  men  seem  alarmed  at  the  apparent  loss  of 
the  literal  sense  of  the  Word,  as  though  their  sheet  anchor 
were  gone.  But  let  me  quiet  their  fears  by  assuring 
them  that  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word  is  everywhere 
true,  as  a  sure  expression  or  symbol  of  an  internal  or  real 
-sense,  which  is  the  soul's  true  life  ;  and  what  can  we  want 
more  ?  True,  the  Bishop  finds  great  difficulty  with  the 
literal  sense.  But  suppose  he  did  not ;  suppose  every- 
thing in  the  letter  had  been  differently  written,  and  were 
just  suited  to  his  mind,  and  to  all  natural  minds,  so  that 
they  could  see  and  understand  it  as  well  as  they  do  a 
common  note  of  hand  ;  what  would  be  the  result  ?  The 
Bishop  would  probably  be  satisfied  with  the  literal  sense, 
and  would  seek  nothing  higher  in  the  Word,  and  men 
would  seem  to  themselves  to  know  as  much  about  it  as 
the  Lord.  The  fact  is,  the  difficulties  men  find  in  under- 
standing the  letter  of  the  Word  are  what  will  eventually 
turn  their  attention  to  the  spiritual  sense.  There  is  a 
holy  sphere  and  power  in  the  Word  that  men  cannot  give 
up.  And  when  the  Lord,  as  the  spiritual  sense,  is  once 
fairly  "  lifted  up"  He  "  will  draw  all  men  unto  "  Him. 

There  is  much  literal  history  in  the  Word,  the  general 
features  of  which  are  a  true  record  of  events  as  they  oc- 


166  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

curred  in  this  world ;  but,  in  making  that  record,  many 
particular  things  were  no. doubt  modified  by  the  Lord  to 
suit  the  requirements  of  the  spiritual  sense,  leaving  out 
such  things  as  were  not  in  correspondences,  arid  supply- 
ing such  as  were,  at  the  same  time  giving  all  the  literal 
history  necessary  for  the  good  of  mankind,  and  making  a 
perfect  spiritual  history  of  the  church  in  man,  or  of  men- 
tal and  real  things  contained  in  such  a  literal  sense  as 
would  perfectly  express  it  by  correspondences :  so  that 
we  can  go  to  this  history  to  learn  correctly  what  the  souls 
of  men  have  passed  through,  and  also  to  obtain  thereby 
the  valuable  instructions  we  need  for  the  action  and  puri- 
fication of  our  own  sou\s. 

Thus  the  history  says  the  seed  of  Abram  was  to  be 
innumerable — "  as  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  as  the  stars 
of  heaven."  (Gen.  xiii,  16.)  Here  the  natural  history,  for 
the  sake  of  the  spiritual  sense,  is  made  to  give  up  every 
appearance  of  truthfulness,  and  to  state  what  no  one  be- 
lieves naturally  occurred ;  and  yet  no  one  is  hurt  by  it ; 
while  that  same  literal  sense,  in  the  language  of  corre- 
spondences, is  perfectly  true  and  beautiful ;  because 
Abram  represents  the  Lord,  and  by  the  seed  of  Abram  is 
denoted  all  the  truths  of  the  Word,  which  are  innumer- 
able. 

Much  might  be  cited  from  the  Word,  wherein  it  is 
clear  that  the  literal  narrative  was  either  interrupted  by 
something  foreign  from  the  natural  thread  of  thought,  or 
modified  by  changes,  for  the  sake  of  the  spiritual  or  living 
sense;  and  particularly  with  regard  to  numbers,  which 
are  ever  used  to  express  the  quality  of  mental  things . 
always,  no  doubt,  giving  a  correct  natural  account  of  the 
number  of  persons  or  things  referred  to,  whenever  that 
number  would  express  the  true  quality  of  the  spiritual 


THE    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   NUMBERS.  167 

things  treated  of:  but  if  it  would  not,  we-  readily  see 
that,  if  expressed  in  the  record,  it  would  not  be  a  true 
spiritual  history.  And  most  surely  the  words  of  the 
Most  High  God,  which  are  spirit,  and  life,  must  be  given 
to  spiritual  beings  for  higher  purposes  than  simply  to 
talk  about  the  things  of  time,  and  teach  men  after  what 
fashion  they  should  make  natural  tabernacles,  and  courts, 
and  temples,  and  high  priests'  garments,  and  their  orna- 
ments. They  must  be  given  to  teach  how  the  minds  of 
men — the  true  tabernacles  of  the  Lord — are  to  be  formed, 
by  means  of  things  good  and  true,  and  clothed  with  the 
"  garments  of  salvation,-'  having  on  the  "  breast-plate  of 
righteousness,"  and  the  "  feet  shod  with  the  preparation 
of  the  gospel  of  peace."  And  through  the  description  of 
these  outward  things,  that  instruction,  by  the  science  of 
correspondences,  is  given  ;  and  no  doubt  better  than  it 
could  be  given,  in  the  spiritual  light,  in  any  other  way. 
Moreover,  when  we  see  clearly  that  numbers  are  used  to 
express  the  qualities  of  things  of  the  mind,  and  often 
without  any  regard  to  the  number  of  natural  things  re- 
ferred to,  many  difficulties  of  the  letter,  which  appear  of 
great  magnitude  to  some  men,  but  which,  in  reality,  do 
not  at  all  concern  us  spiritually,  are  at  once  removed,  and 
the  literal  sense  appears  all  right — the  numbers  answering 
the  full  purpose  for  which  they  were  used  :  as  in  the  seal- 
ing of  the  servants  of  God,  from  the  tribes  of  the  children 
of  Israel.  (Rev.  vii.)  We  find  the  whole  number  sealed 
to  be  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand.  This  num- 
ber, we  have  shown,  signifies  the  same  as  twelve,  of 
which  one  hundred  and  forty-four  is  the  square,  and 
which,  as  has  been  shown,  was  the  measure  of  a  man,  that 
is,  of  an  angel.  And  as  twelve  denotes  all  goods  and 
truths,  so  we  thereby  see  the  true  character  and  quality 


168  THE  CORRESPONDENCE:  OF  NUMBERS. 

of  all  the  children  of  Israel  who  were  prepared  for  heav- 
en :  which  teaches,  that,  to  be  sealed  for  heaven,  we  must 
not  be  opposed  to  anything  heavenly,  but  must  yield  to 
the  influence  of  all  goo4s  and  truths,  in  their  multifarious 
operations,  even  as  to  all  the  little  particulars  of  thoughts, 
feelings,  and  actions,  expressed  by  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  thousand. 

By  this  light  are  dispelled  all  the  clouds  of  doubt  that 
may  arise  from  the  idea  that,  of  the  enormous  body  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  able  to  send  out  six  hundred  and  three 
thousand,  five  hundred  and  fifty  warriors  (Numbers  i), 
there  should  have  been  but  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
thousand  sealed  for  heaven ;  and  also  from  the  fact  that, 
though  the  twelve  tribes  were  of  various  magnitudes, 
some  containing  more  than  twice  the  number  of  others, 
yet  that  each  tribe  should  have  had  precisely  the  same 
number  of  good  ones — twelve  thousand.  For,  when  we 
see  that  twelve  thousand  denotes  simply  the  qualification 
of  the  members  of  each  tribe  for  heaven,  whether  they 
were  many  or  few,  all  is  right.  Therefore  we  learn  from 
this  spiritual  sense  that  the  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
thousand  saved  were  all  that  were  good  and  true,  without 
regard  to  natural  numbers,  and  also  that  simply  belong- 
ing outwardly  to  a  body  of  the  church  does  not  save  us. 
We  must  bear  the  seal  of  twelve  thousand  in  the  forehead. 
We  must  be  good  and  true. 

And  so  all  the  difficulties  which  the  Bishop  sees  in  the 
"  war  on  Midian,"  noted  in  Part  First  of  his  work,  num- 
bers 169  and  172,  would  soon  be  lost  in  spiritual  light,  if 
lie  saw  the  internal  sense  and  felt  its  importance.  For  he 
would  then  see  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  natural 
facts  in  the  various  wars  mentioned  in  the  Word,  the  nar- 
ratives have  been  written  and  recorded  for  the  sake  of  the 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS.  169 

spiritual  sense,  in  order  to  teach  men  the  way  of  life. 
And  in  seeing  and  receiving  the  spiritual  light  and  life, 
his  soul  would  be  satisfied  that  he  had  found  a  true  his- 
tory of  mental  wars — of  the  combats  of  goods  and  truths 
against  evils  and  falsities  in  the  human  mind.  He  would 
see  that  the  various  nations,  tribes,  and  sexes  engaged 
denote  principles  of  the  mind ;  that  the  numbers  men- 
tioned denote  the  qualities  of  those  principles  ;  and  that 
the  extent  or  size  of  the  numbers  is  always  governed  pri- 
marily by  the  mental  qualities  of  the  nations,  tribes,  in- 
dividuals, or  principles  mentioned,  rather  than  by  the 
count  of  them.  And  then  he  would  see,  by  the  spiritual 
rale  of  arriving  at  mental  qualities,  that,  where  thirty 
thousand  are  mentioned,  there  may  not  have  been  over 
thirty  individuals,  or  where  five  hundred  thousand,  not 
over  fifty,  and  so  forth  ;  and  that  the  numbers  had  been 
extended  for  the  sake  of  the  innumerable  qualities,  com- 
binations, and. shades  of  the  various  goods  and  truths  or 
evils  and  falsities  engaged,  conquered,  or  killed  in  this 
mental  warfare  ;  and  of  which  the  Lord,  who  ordered  the 
record,  could  see  the  use  that  would  eventually  result 
from  it.  For  we  should  consider  that  the  Lord's  "Word 
must  be  eternal  truth,  and  therefore  adapted  to  all  ages 
that  are  to  come,  and  that  its  true  spirit  and  life  are  yet 
to  be  clearly  seen  and  felt. 

And  then,  as  the  Bishop  would  see  that,  in  the  "  war 
on  Midian,"  the  instruction  is  applicable  to  man's  regen- 
eration in  the  present  day  and  in  the  ages  to  come  ;  and 
that  the  Israelites  denote  good  and  true  principles  of  the 
internal  mind,  and  the  Midianites  denote  evil  and  false 
principles  of  the  external  mind  ;  and  as  he  would  further 
see  that  any  human  mind,  of  either  sex,  has  both  the 
male  and  female  elements ;  that  the  female  elements  of 
8 


170  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

that  mind  are  either  goods  or  evils,  or  both,  and  that  the 
male  elements  of  the  same  mind  are  either  truths  or  falsi- 
ties, or  both ;  and  that  this  war  on  Midian  we  must  all 
pass  through  in  our  regeneration — the  Israelites,  or  good 
and  true  principles  of  the  internal  mind,  fighting  against 
the  Midianites,  or  evil  and  false  principles  of  the  external 
mind ; — I  say,  as  the  Bishop  would  see  and  receive  this 
spiritual  light  and  life  of  the  Holy  "Word,  he  would  be 
satisfied  that  he  had  found  a  true  history  of  mental  wars 
which  purify  the  soul,  and  that  the  literal  sense  was  in 
precisely  the  right  language  to  express  it. 

And  having  the  understanding  thus  far  opened,  to  be- 
hold the  wonderful  things  written  in  God's  law,  the 
Bishop  would  be  able  clearly  to  see  that,  by  the  males  of 
the  Midianites,  which  we  must  all  slay  in  this  warfare, 
are  meant  all  the  falsities  of  the  natural  mind  ;  and  the 
females,  which  Moses  or  the  law  commands  us  to  slay, 
are  all  the  evils  of  that  mind ;  while  the  young  females, 
that  we  are  to  keep  for  ourselves,  are  all  the  remains  of 
good,  all  the  good,  conscientious  principles  we  may  have, 
which  have  not  been  adulterated  or  perverted  with  falsi- 
ties ;  and  that  these  tender  germs  of  heavenly  affection, 
which  the  Lord  has  mercifully  given  us  and  thus  far  pro- 
tected, we  are  to  take  to  our  bosoms,  and  ever  guard  them 
from  all  harm. 

Thus  seeing  the  beauty  and  use  of  the  spiritual  sense, 
and  also  the  divine  object  in  giving  it ;  and  seeing,  fur- 
ther, that  God  is  often  said,  in  the  Word,  to  order  or  to  do 
what  He  only  permits  to  be  done ;  and,  therefore,  that 
whatever  was  wrong  in  the  "  war  on  Midian,"  was  from 
the  wickedness  of  man,  and  not  from  God,  and  was  per- 
mitted in  order  to  prevent  some  greater  evil  or  to  bring 
about  some  important  good  ; — I  say,  seeing  this  heavenly 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS.  171 

light,  how  changed  would  God's  Word  appear  to  the 
Bishop,  and  how  flimsy  and  indefinite  would  become  all 
his  objections ! 

And  so  his  inquiring  heart  would  rejoice  to  see  every- 
thing apparently  unkind  or  unjust  everywhere  removed 
from  the  will  of  God  in  the  spirit  of  His  Word  ;  and  par- 
ticularly from  such  passages  as  those  of  Deuteronomy 
xxi,  1,  2.  And  here  he  would  see  that,  as  every  part  of 
the  body  denotes  something  of  the  mind — the  eye  denot- 
ing the  understanding  ;  the  ear,  obedience  ;  the  nose,  per- 
ception ;  the  hands,  power ;  the  lips,  language ;  and  so 
forth — so  he  would  also  see  that  the  first  verse  points  to 
the  mentally  wounded  or  maimed ;  to  such  as  have  by 
sin  destroyed  their  ability  to  propagate  spiritual  things — 
the  goods  and  truths  of  the  Word — for,  without  the  ability 
or  willingness  to  be  instructed  and  to  receive  the  truths  of 
the  Word  into  good  ground,  and  to  cultivate  and  bring 
forth  the  fruits  of  righteousness,  men  cannot  be  regener- 
ated so  as  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or  the 
"  congregation  of  the  Lord."  Thus,  how  completely  the 
apparent  injustice  of  the  letter  is  lost  in  the  beautiful 
light  of  the  spirit ! 

And  equally  are  we  rejoiced  to  see  all  unkindness  re- 
moved from  the  second  verse.  For,  in  the  spiritual  sense, 
we  see  that  any  spiritual  birth,  springing  not  from  the 
marriage  of  goodness  and  truth,  must,  in  the  divine  light, 
be  illegitimate  and  evil,  and  therefore  could  not  enter 
heaven  or  be  happy  ;  for,  in  order  to  do  this,  we  must  be 
born  of  God,  or  of  goodness  and  truth.  The  church  is 
goodness  from  God  in  the  »will :  the  Lord,  as  the  husband 
of  the  church,  is  truth  in  the  understanding :  characters 
born  of  this  parentage  are  the  only  true  children  of  God. 
If  men  embrace  the  truths  of  the  Word  in  their  affections, 


172  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   NUMBERS. 

and  humbly  carry  them  out  in  their  lives,  they  will  be 
born  of  the  spirit ;  whatever  may  have  been  the  character 
or  marriage  relation  of  their  natural  parents. 

Much  sorrow  and  gloom  have  pressed  upon  the  minds 
of  certain  individuals  of  former  ages,  in  consequence  of 
these  verses ;  but,  as  intelligence  and  reason  have  ad- 
vanced, men  have  turned  from  such  teachings  'and  their 
gloom  to  the  worse  gloom  of  skepticism.  Let  them  now 
return  and  embrace  the  spirit  and  life  of  the  "Word,  and 
all  their  former  and  latter  gloom  will  disappear.  The 
Word  will  everywhere  be  found  to  be  pure  and  holy, 
merciful  and  kind,  just  and  reasonable. 

But  it  is  not  my  intention,  with  the  spiritual  sense,  to 
follow  the  Bishop  through  all  his  statements  of  difficulties 
in  the  letter ;  but  merely  to  glance  at  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  Divine  and  human  natures,  and  at  the 
great  living  laws  of  creation  and  providence,  laid  down  in 
the  Holy  "Word,  and  sustained  and  illustrated  therein 
through  the  means  of  His  works,  by  the  science  of  corre- 
spondences, whereby  the  truth  and  perfection  of  the 
"Word  may  be  irrefutably  sustained,  and  the  true  interests 
of  mankind  rationally  understood. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

HEAT  AND  LIGHT:    LOVE  AND  WISDOM. 

As  heat  and  light  are  the  highest  and  most  prominent 
things  used  in  correspondences,  it  will  very  much  aid  the 
student  of  the  Word  to  obtain  clear  and  definite  views  of 
the  relation  which  they  bear  to  the  Divine  Love  and  Wis- 
dom, that  he  may  be  able,  as  he  proceeds  in  the  divine 
study,  to  understand  the  beautiful  analogy  which  exists 
in  the  Word  between  the  influence  of  the  Love  and  Wis- 
dom of  God  upon  the  human  mind,  in  the  production  of 
everything  good  and  true  in  the  soul,  and  that  of  the  heat 
and  light  of  the  sun,  in  the  production  of  the  things  of 
nature,  which  are  brought  up  in  the  Word  to  express 
those  things  of  the  soul. 

~Now  heat  corresponds  to  Love  or  Life,  and  light  to 
Wisdom  or  Truth  ;  and  the  Lord  is  called  the  Light  and 
the  Life.  Spiritual  Light  and  Life,  then,  are  infinite 
things,  and  can  be  rationally  approached  by  man,  at  this 
age  of  the  world,  only  by  the  science  of  correspondences. 

JSTow  there  are  various  degrees  of  heat  and  light. 
There  are  spiritual  heat  and  light,  or  love  and  wisdom, 
from  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word,  for  the  internal 
mind  of  man,  by  which  we  look  up  to  God  and  to  the 


174:  HEAT   AND   LIGHT  I     LOVE   AND   WISDOM. 

heavenly  laws ;  and  there  are  natural  heat  and  light,  or 
love  and  wisdom,  from  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word,  for 
the  external  mind  of  man,  by  which  we  look  out  to  our 
neighbors,  and  to  the  laws  of  civil  truth  and  justice. 
And  there  are  also  material  heat  and  light,  by  means  of 
which  we  see  and  feel  material  things,  through  the  senses 
of  our  material  bodies.  This  material  heat  and  light  are 
the  physical  expressions  of  the  Divine  .Love  and  Wisdom, 
and  are  the  sensible  manifestations  to  man  in  the  flesh  of 
those  principles  by  correspondences. 

But  the  material  heat  and  light  are  not  real  life  and 
light,  but  only  their  effects  and  representatives.  Yet,  as 
the  divine  life  and  light  are  the  cause,  and  are  in  the 
effect,  the  material  heat  and  light  are,  therefore,  perfect 
correspondences  to  the  spiritual  life  and  light  of  the 
Word.  But  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word  is  also  a  body 
of  natural  Truth  and  Love  higher  than  matter  ;  and  which 
the  spiritual  sense  infills,  as  its  soul  and  life.  Therefore, 
when  our  thoughts  ascend  above  material  heat  and  light 
to  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word  ;  we  find  in  that  sense  a 
sure  correspondence  to  a  still  higher  or  spiritual  sense. 
That  literal  sense  is  the  body  which  adapts  the  spiritual 
sense  to  our  capacities  by  correspondence,  just  as  the  ma- 
terial heat  and  light  are  the  material  body  which  brings 
down  those  divine  principles  still  lower,  and  adapts  them 
to  our  bodily  senses. 

We  are  now  in  the  flesh,  and  are  so  low  and  natural 
that  spiritual  things  have  to  be  presented  to  us  by  corre- 
spondences, so  as  to  be  apprehended,  even  through  ma- 
terial coverings.  It  was  in  consequence  of  this  low  state 
that  the  Lord,  in  order  to  reach  us,  had  to  come  down 
into  a  material  body,  and  reach  us  through  the  senses. 

Now  the  Divine  Life  and  Light,  or  Love  and  Wisdom, 


HEAT   AND   LIGHT  I     LOVE   AND    WISDOM.  175 

are,  in  themselves,  Infinite.  And  man,  being  finite,  can 
never  see  them  as  they  are.  He  can  only  look  toward 
them  by  correspondences.  And  these  correspondences 
through  which  he  looks  must  all  be  finite  and  adapted 
to  his  state.  The  divine  Life  and  Light,  therefore,  have 
mercifully  clothed  themselves,  by  correspondences,  in 
lower  and  still  lower  finite  forms,  adapted  to  the  various 
states  of  men  and  angels,  till  they  have  come  down  to 
men  on  earth  in  material  heat  and  light. 

The  next  form  of  them,  above  material  heat  and  light, 
is  the  literal  sense  of  the  Word  in  its  love  and  truth.  But 
even  these  heavenly  principles,  as  men  see  and  feel  them, 
are  also  finite.  Yet  they  are  filled  with  the  infinite. 
And,  as  we  look  through  them  by  correspondences  to  the 
life  and  light  of  the  spiritual  sense,  we  have  a  still  higher 
and  more  complete  view  of  the  divine  qualities. 

But  no  angel  can  see  God,  as  He  is  in  Himself.  The 
higher  we  advance  in  purity,  the  more  exalted  will  be  the 
correspondences  through  which  we  look,  and  the  more 
clear  and  heavenly  the  view.  "We  can  therefore  have  a 
rational  but  finite  conception  of  something  like  the  infi- 
nite life  and  light,  through  their  effects,  produced  by 
natural  life  and  light  in  the  universe  of  mind ;  and  also 
by  material  heat  and  light  in  the  universe  of  matter. 
Spiritual  life  and  light  are  for  the  spiritual  minds  of  men 
and  angels ;  natural  life  and  light,  for  the  natural  minds 
of  men  and  angels,  and  material  heat  and  light,  for  the 
bodies  of  men  on  earth  and  material  substances. 

But.  each  lower  degree  has  to  be  filled  with  the  next 
higher,  or  it  could  not  exist.  The  material  must  be  filled 
with  the  natural,  the  natural  with  the  spiritual,  and  the 
spiritual  with  the  celestial — the  Divine  Essence  and 
Fountain. 


176  HEAT   AND   LIGHT  :     IX)VE   AND   WISDOM. 

Now,  as  spiritual  life  and  light  are  far  above  all  spirit- 
ual minds,  and  are  the  source  of  their  existence  and  de* 
velopment ;  and  as  natural  life  and  light  are  far  above  all 
natural  minds,  and  are  the  immediate  source  of  their 
existence  and  development ;  so  material  heat  and  light 
are  far  above  all  other  material  substances,  and  seem  to  be 
the  source  of  their  existence  and  development.  But  this 
is  only  an  appearance.  Material  heat  and  light  are  mere 
instruments.  But  even  as  material  substances,  they  are 
far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  natural  sciences  of  the  present 
age.  We  know  not,  from  natural  science,  what  are  their 
intrinsic  properties. 

Is  it  not  a  little  remarkable  that  so  common  material 
substances  as  heat  and  light  should,  at  this  enlightened 
age,  still  remain  beyond  the  reach  of  human  sagacity  or 
scientific  research?  There  are  many  things  in  nature 
which  correspond  to  love  and  wisdom,  to  which  we  can 
successfully  apply  the  laws  of  analytical  investigation ; 
such  as  land  and  water,  or  gold  and  silver,  or  oil  and 
wine,  which  denote  goodness  and  truth,  and  point  us,  by 
correspondence,  to  the  two  great  divine  elements — Love 
and  Wisdom,  or  Life  and  Light.  These  natural  sub- 
stances can  be  analyzed,  and  their  properties  defined ; 
but  who  can  bring  into  his  laboratory  a  ray  of  light,  and 
extract  from  it  its  heat,  and  tell  us  what  are  the  element- 
ary properties  of  the  two  'parts,  or  of  either  part  ? 

Now  heat  and  light  are  the  first  material  substances  in 
which  the  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom  clothe  themselves,  in 
correspondence,  as  they  descend  in  the  scale  of  being. 
But,  as  these  divine  elements  descend,  through  spiritual 
substances,  into  material,  and  first  clothe  themselves  in 
"heat  and  light,  they,  even  there  in  the  robe  of  nature, 
leave  us  lost  as  to  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  very 


HEAT   AND   LIGHT  I     LOVE   AND   WISDOM.  177 

matter  in  which  they  express  themselves  to  our  senses ; 
thus  leaving  the  material  dress  as  much  a  matter  of  won- 
der to  us  as  is  the  life  which  infills  it,  and  to  which  it 
corresponds.  Heat  and  light  being  only  the  first  step 
below  spiritual  substances,  are  consequently  the  highest 
material  substances.  They  are  so  high  and  so  near  the 
divine  qualities,  that  when  we  attempt,  by  natural  sci- 
ence, to  analyze  them,  they  are  lost  in  the  unspeakable 
glory  of  the  infinite  which  they  express.  And  they  stand 
before  the  mind,  and  even  the  senses  of  man,  as  the  most 
perfect  correspondences,  or  the  highest  material  symbols 
of  the  divine  love  and  wisdom. 

As  God  Himself  is  Love,  and  as  He,  by  His  infinite 
wisdom,  created  the  universe,  and  as  He,  in  that  love  and 
wisdom,  is  the  Great  Heavenly  Father  who  is  ever  warm- 
ing and  illuminating  the  hearts  and  minds  of  angels  and 
men ;  so  material  heat  and  light  seem,  in  their  united 
power,  to  be  the  great  parents  of  the  material  universe. 
All  nature  seems  almost  to  worship  the  sun,  and  to  look 
up  to  him  for  support  and  nourishment  from  his  heat  and 
light.  The  planets,  in  their  revolutions,  seem  almost  to 
do  him  homage.  In  his  apparent,  parental  affections,  he 
holds  them  in  their  orbits  from  going  astray.  They  daily 
turn  their  faces  to  his  genial  sphere ;  and  in  fable  they 
might  seem  individually  to  say  to  their  animal  and  vege- 
table offspring,  "  Look  up,  my  children,  to  your  glorious 
father,  who  warms  you,  and  nourishes  you,  and  gives  you 
life  and  light."  And  when  these  planets,  in  their  wan- 
derings and  apparent  forgetfulness  of  the  source  of  life, 
find  the  cold  frosts  of  seeming  selfishness  congealing  their 
bosoms  and  stopping  the  vital  action,  then  seemingly  like 
the  repentant  sinner  they  turn  their  frozen  sides  to  the 
parent  sun,  and  yielding  to  the  kind  and  creative  sphere 
8* 


178  HEAT    AND    LIGHT  I      LOVE    AND   WISDOM. 

of  his  heat  and  light,  he  melts  their  frosts,  warms  their 
bosoms,  fills  them  with  animation  and  life,  clothes  them 
in  new  robes,  adorns  them  with  beautiful  colors  from  his 
own  beams,  and  blesses  them  with  flowers  and  fruits  ;  and 
the  song  of  joy  and  praise  ascends  from  ten  thousand 
choristers.  And  how  precisely  do  these  influences  of  the 
sun's  heat  and  light  upon  the  world  of  matter  correspond 
to  the  operations  of  the  divine  love  and  wisdom  upon  the 
world  of  mind ! 

Yes,  the  sun  is  the  first  and  highest  symbol  in  nature 
of  the  Great  Jehovah.  And  how  perfect  the  correspond- 
ence !  No  wonder  that  the  heathen  worshipped  the  sun. 
There  he  stands,  in  glorious  majesty,  in  the  physical  firm- 
ament, an  immense  body  of  heat  and  light,  filling  the 
vast  sphere  of  his  system  of  worlds,  with  his  own  genial 
beams,  holding  everything  in  their  places,  and  presiding 
like  a  father  over  his  family.  And  while  there  in  his 
splendor,  meeting  the  gaze  of  an  inquiring  world,  he  is 
sending  down  his  properties  to  every  living  thing ;  giving 
constantly  to  the  material  world  the  very  elements  of 
himself,  the  same  as  God  gives  His  love  and  wisdom  to 
the  mental  world.  And  yet,  with  all  these  generous  con- 
tributions of  the  sun's  nature,  he  remains  the  very  puzzle 
and  wonder  of  all  human  science.  How  he  can  exist  and 
constantly  give  off  a  vast  flood  of  material  substances — 
how  he  can  forever  be  giving  himself  away,  and  still  re- 
main undiminished,  is  yet  the  astounding  problem  of  the 
natural  man.  Thus,  like  our  Heavenly  Father,  the  sun 
is  ever  giving,  and  yet  is  ever  full.  Material  heat  and 
light,  then,  are  yet  above  the  reach  of  human  science. 
We  can  approach  no  nearer  to  physical  heat  and  light 
than  their  effects.  We  behold  the  animal  or  the  tree, 
when  alive,  and  we  look  at  them  when  dead.  We  mark 


HEAT    AND   LIGHT  :     LOVE   AND    WISDOM  179 

the  change.  But  we  know  not  the  quality  nor  the  sub- 
stance of  the  life  that  once  animated  them.  Thus  it  is 
beyond  the  power  of  human  reason  and  research  ever  to 
draw  from  nature  alone  the  moving  power  and  quality  of 
her  laws.  She  can  never  tell  us  how  it  is  that  she  has 
life  and  light,  nor  what  that  light  and  life  are. 

But  there  is  an  Author  to  nature.  There  is  a  Source 
from  which  nature  springs.  Now,  man  is  neither  that 
Author  nor  is  he  nature.  He  is  the  uniting  link  between 
the  two.  Man  is' human.  Nature  is  not  human.  Hu- 
manity is  free  and  rational.  Nature  is  not  free  and  ra- 
tional. Humanity  can  look  upward  or  downward,  back- 
ward or  forward.  Nature  can  look  but  one  way — the 
way  she  goes.  Man  is  designed  for  higher  life.  Nature 
is  riot.  Man,  as  to  his  mind,  is  both  spiritual  and  natural. 
That  mind  is,  therefore,  connected  internally  with  the 
spiritual  world  and  with  its  God,  and  externally  with  its 
material  body  and  with  nature.  Man  is  therefore  capable 
of  giving  his  affections  and  thoughts  either  to  the  things 
of  this  world,  which  are  low  and  perishable,  or  to  the 
things  of  the  spiritual  world,  which  are  heavenly  and 
eternal.  Therefore,  man  is  not  always  obliged  to  remain 
ignorant  of  the  nature  and  quality  of  life  and  light,  be- 
cause the  natural  sciences  do  not  reach  them. 

Man  has  a  higher  Teacher  than  nature.  God  is  his 
Teacher.  And  though  God  speaks  to  him  and  teaches 
him  through  nature,  yet  He  has  also  spoken  to  him  in  a 
direct  revelation.  And  in  this  revelation  of  His  Holy 
Word,  He  makes  known  to  us  man's  relation  to  nature, 
and  also  his  relation  to  his  God.  And  He  gives  him  a 
science  above  all  natural  sciences — the  science  of  corre- 
spondences, or  of  the  relation  of  natural  things  to  their 
causes — the  relation  which  exists  between  mind  and  matter. 


180  HEAT   AND    LIGHT  :      LOVE   AND   WISDOM. 

By  this  science  He  teaches  us  to  look  through  nature  up  to 
nature's  God ;  to  read  the  invisible  things  of  God  from  the 
creation  of  the  world,  through  the  things  that  are  made. 

Man,  therefore,  is  capable  of  making  unlimited  prog- 
ress in  wisdom  and  knowledge.  For,  though  he  sees  not, 
by  natural  science,  what  the  sun  is,  nor  what  his  heat  and 
light  are,  nor  how  he  gives  them  off  undiminished,  yet  he 
may  see,  by  the  Divine  truth  of  analogy,  into  higher  re- 
gions of  light ;  he  may  see  that  the  sun  is  the  effect  of 
the  Divine  love  and  wisdom  in  their  operation  for  the 
creation  of  physical  things ;  that  the  Divine  love  and 
wisdom,  flowing  from  the  Great  Jehovah,  for  the  creation 
of  lower  things,  first  produce  the  natural  sun ;  that  that 
sun  is  the  first  material  ultimate  or  effect  of  the  Divine 
efflux  in  the  production  of  nature.  And  as  the  Divine 
love  and  wisdom  are  spiritual  heat  and  light,  and  are 
ever  flowing  into  the  sun,  producing  natural  heat  and 
light,  therefore  the  sun  is  always  full,  though  constantly 
giving  itself  away  in  material  heat  and  light.  For, 
though  the  sun  is  ever  giving  off  its  substances,  yet  it  is 
also  ever  being  created  ;  because  the  cause  which  at  first 
produced  it  is  always  producing  it.  For,  as  God  is  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  so  He  is  therefore  a 
Creator  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  He  is,  conse- 
quently, from  His  love  and  wisdom,  always  creating  the 
sun.  And  through  the  outflowing  heat  and  light  of  that 
sun,  as  a  means,  the  Lord  is  always  creating  the  lower 
orders  of  things  in  nature.  Tims  the  earth  brings  forth, 
and  is  ever  teeming  with  new  creations  of  animal  and 
vegetable  life.  Suspend  the  influx  of  the  Divine  love 
and  wisdom  into  that  sun,  and  you  would  suspend  the 
efflux  of  the  sun's  heat  and  light ;  and  darkness  and 
death  would  follow  throughout  the  entire  solar  system. 


HEAT   AND   LIGHT  I     LOVE   AND    WISDOM.  181 

But,  it  is  asked,  how  this  is  known  ?  We  answer,  it  is 
known  from  the  science  of  correspondences,  seen  in  the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  Holy  Word.  God  Himself  teaches 
it,  not  man.  We  are  taught  many  times  in  the  Word 
that  heat  and  light  correspond  to  love  and  wisdom ;  by 
which  we  are  also  taught  that  love  and  wisdom  are  the 
direct  cause  of  heat  and  light  as  an  effect.  From  this 
simple  fact  alone  may  be  drawn  all  the  ideas  we  have  ad- 
vanced on  the  subject. 

The  Sun  of  Righteousness,  of  which  we  read  in  the 
Holy  Word,  is  nothing  but  the  concentration  of  the  Di- 
vine love  and  wisdom  in  the  spiritual  world.  And  the 
natural  sun,  in  our  world,  is  constantly  created  and  sus- 
tained by  the  Divine  love  and  wisdom  flowing  from  God, 
as  that  Sun  of  Righteousness,  into  the  material  sphere. 
God  works  by  means;  and  these  means  are  always  ac- 
cording to  the  science  of  correspondences.  The  opening 
of  the  Holy  Word,  by  this  Divine  science,  discloses  to 
the  mind  of  man  a  new  source  and  field  of  instruction. 
The  march  of  humanity,  therefore,  in  the  path  of  wisdom, 
must  henceforth  be  more  rapidly  onward ;  for  the  way 
must  become  more  and  more  clear  and  bright.  And  the 
extent  of  the  progress  will  be  limited  only  by  infinity. 
But  to  make  this  progress  we  must  look  up,  and  not 
down.  We  must  look  to  God  as  our  teacher.  We  must 
look  into  the  science  of  correspondences,  and  the  nature 
of  the  Divine  language.  We  must  seek  a  knowledge  of 
the  world  of  causes  through  the  world  of  effects.  We 
must  seek  a  knowledge  of  our  own  internal  will  or  heart's 
desires  through  the  nature  and  character  of  our  outward 
thoughts,  feelings,  and  actions.  And  we  should  measure 
them  all  by  the  golden  reed  of  truth,  and  weigh  them  in 
the  scales  of  Divine  justice.  Thus  we  must  become  ac- 


182       HEAT  AND  LIGHT  :  LOVE  AND  WISDOM. 

quainted  with  the  Divine  laws,  in  their  mental  and  phys- 
ical application  to  ourselves.  And  we  must  strive,  dili- 
gently and  faithfully,  to  conform  our  lives  to  those  laws. 

A  brief  but  comprehensive  view  of  those  laws  may  be 
always  seen  in  their  Divine  summing  up — love  to  God 
and  the  neighbor.  And  we  may  readily  decide  upon  the 
character  of  any  thought,  feeling,  or  action,  by  applying 
this  test :  "Was  it  done  from  love  to  God  and  the  neigh- 
bor ?  And  would  a  world  of  such  thoughts,  feelings,  and 
actions,  produce  heaven  ?  These  are  the  test  questions. 
And  we  must  ever  be  conscious  that  we  derive  all  our 
wisdom,  power,  and  ability  to  conform  to  these  laws, 
from  the  life  and  light  of  the  Lord. 

"In  Him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men" 
(John  i,  4.)  Here  the  Word  says  the  light  of  men  is  the 
life  of  God.  The  true  light  of  men  is  the  Divine  truth. 
The  life  of  the  Lord  is  the  Divine  love,  which  gives  all 
the  Divine  truth  to  men.  To  really  have  the  light  of 
men,  then,  so  as  clearly  to  see  by  it,  we  must  possess  the 
life.  That  life  is  the  love  of  God  and  the  neighbor  :  it  is 
the  love  of  goodness  and  truth.  If  we  have  not  that  life, 
the  light,  as  declared  in  the  "Word,  will  shine  in  darkness, 
and  the  darkness  will  comprehend  it  not.  If  we  have  not 
the  life,  the  light  will  condemn  us  ;  and  we  cannot  clearly 
see  by  it.  "We  falsify  it.  And  thus  the  light  becomes 
darkness  in  us.  And  the  Lord  says  of  such,  "  If  the  light 
in  thee  be  darkness,  how  great  is  that  darkness !"  If  we 
have  not  that  life  or  love  of  good,  we  then  have  the  oppo- 
site life,  the  love  of  evil ;  and  this  evil  love  falsifies  the 
truth. 

But  men  may  have,  to  some  extent,  the  love  of  good 
or  love  of  right,  and  still  not  clearly  see  the  truth,  for  the 
want  of  proper  instruction.  And  the  Lord  mercifully  re- 


HEAT   AND    LIGHT  I     LOVE   AND   WISDOM.  183 

gards  the  conditions  of  men  under  all  circumstances,  and 
adapts  His  dispensations  to  their  wants  in  every  age  of 
life.  And  now,  when  the  world  most  needs  it,  He  is 
giving  to  men  the  internal  sense  of  the  Word,  and  clear 
views  of  its  doctrines  ;  that  its  light  and  life  may  be  seen 
and  felt ;  so  that  the  light  may  no  longer  shine  in  dark- 
ness, and  the  darkness  comprehend  it  not.  And  it  is  our 
blessed  privilege  to  live  in  this  age,  when  that  life  and 
light  are  clearly  made  known.  May  we  be  truly  Sensible 
of  this  inestimable  privilege ;  and  may  we  rightly  im- 
prove it,  by  shunning  all  evils  as  sins  against  God,  and 
letting  our  light  so  shine  before  men  that  they  may  see 
our  good  works,  and  glorify  our  Father  who  is  in  heaven. 
Then  will  our  path  grow  brighter  and  brighter  unto  the 
perfect  day.  God  will  be  merciful  unto  us,  and  bless  us, 
and  show  us  the  light  of  His  countenance  ;  that  His  way 
may  be  known  upon  the  earth,  His  saving  health  among 
all  nations. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


NEW  BOTTLES  FOR  NEW  WINE. 

As  the  one  great  study  of  man  is  the  study  of  the 
human  mind,  God  being  connected  with  that  mind,  from 
above,  and  nature,  from  below,  man  being  the  intermediate 
plane,  and  the  first  receptacle  of  life  ;  therefore,  if  we  would 
study  divinity,  we  must  study  humanity  in  connection  with 
God.  For  we  can  truly  know  nothing  of  God,  or  of  His 
properties,  except  as  they  are  received  into  the  mind,  and 
there  understood  and  felt.  "We  can  know  nothing  of 
heaven,  or  of  hell,  or  of  the  spiritual  world,  but  from  the 
study  of  the  human  mind  and  of  their  operations  there. 
Everything  has  to  be  learned  there,  whether  good  or  evil, 
true  or  false. 

The  human  mind  is  the  first  free  and  rational  recepta- 
cle into  which  things  flow,  from  the  Infinite  Fountain. 
For,  by  the  human  mind  is  meant  all  the  minds  of  angels 
and  men — universal  human  nature.  Before  things  enter 
the  rational  sphere  of  the  human  mind,  we  know  nothing 
of  them.  The  human  mind  is  the  great  laboratory,  into 
which  all  things  must  be  brought,  and  analyzed,  before 
they  can  be  rationally  known  by  any  being  but  God. 

But  as  this  human  mind  has  both  an  external  and  an 


NEW  BOTTLE*  FOR  NEW  WINE.  185 

internal,  or  a  natural  and  a  spiritual  plane,  so  it  is  capa- 
ble of  exercising  two  forms  of  thought,  by  having  two 
standpoints  for  looking  at  the  same  things,  whereby  the 
objects  viewed  are  seen  in  either  a  natural  or  spiritual 
point  of  view. 

Now,  it  is  in  reference  to  these  things  that  our  Lord 
says,  "  No  man  putteth  a  piece  of  new  cloth  unto  an  old 
garment,  for  that  which  is  put  in  to  fill  it  up  taketh  from 
the  garment,  and  the  rent  is  made  wrorse.  Neither  do 
men  put  new  wine  into  old  bottles  :  else  the  bottles  break, 
and  the  wine  runneth  out,  and  the  bottles  perish  :  but 
they  put  new  wine  into  new  bottles,  and  both  are  pre- 
served." (Matt,  ix,  16,  IT.)  For  the  doctrine  or  idea 
which  we  have  of  a  thing  is  the  bottle ;  and  the  truth,  con- 
tained in  the  idea,  is  the  wine.  And  as  the  doctrines  or 
ideas  which  we  first  form  of  things,  whether  civil,  moral 
or  religious,  are  all  natural,  therefore,  they  are  the  old 
bottles  ;  and  the  natural  truth  which  fills  them  is  the  old 
wine.  The  new  wine  is  the  spiritual  truth  of  the  "Word, 
which  must  be  put  into  new  bottles. 

The  natural  or  literal  truths  of  the  Word  are  adapted 
to  the  natural  or  external  mind,  and  to  time  and  space. 
And  as  time  and  space  are  appearances — and  yet,  to  the 
natural  mind,  are  as  realities — so  the  literal  truths  of  the 
"Word,  in  order  to  reach  minds  that  are  thinking  and  act- 
ing as  in  time  and  space,  have  to  be  brought  down  into 
appearances.  The  external  mind,  connected  as  it  is  with 
the  body,  and  thereby  with  time  and  space,  and  receiving 
all  its  first  impressions  through  the  senses  of  the  body, 
cannot  be,  at  first,  educated  and  developed  in  any  other 
way.  But  when  the  external  mind  is  developed  to  man- 
hood, and  its  higher  faculties  begin  to  be  called  into  exer- 
cise, man  finds  his  apparent  truths  involved  in  mystery. 


186  NEW   BOTTLES    FOR   NEW    WINE. 

They  rest  in  the  world  of  effects,  and  do  not  reach  the 
world  of  causes.  They  need  an  interpreter,  before  they 
can  satisfy  his  mental  wants.  This  is  because  man  has  a 
higher  nature,  a  spiritual  mind  within,  designed  for  the 
spiritual  world  ;  and  he  desires  to  know  the  "  whys  "  and 
"  wherefores  "  of  his  being,  and  is  asking  for  spiritual  light 
— for  new  wine. 

But  the  spiritual  mind  is  yet  young,  like  a  little-  child ; 
while  the  natural  mind  is  "  a  strong  man  armed."  And 
the  spiritual  truths  require  the  strong  man  to  give  up  his 
way  of  feeling,  thinking,  and  acting,  and  to  submit  to  the 
dictation  and  government  of  this  child.  The  strong  man 
is  proud  and  selfish,  and  his  mental  appetites  and  habits 
are  such  that  he  does  not  relish  this  new  wine.  True 
there  is  much  mystery  about  his  old  wine  :  but  he  has  so 
adulterated  it,  by  adapting  it  to  his  selfish  feelings  and 
habits  of  life,  that  he  loves  it  better,  in  all  its  mysteries, 
than  he  does  the  new  wine.  "  No  man  having  drunk  old 
wine  straightway  desireth  new"  saith  the  Lord.  Any- 
thing that  is  to  revolutionize  the  whole  mind,  in  its  modes 
of  thinking,  feeling,  and  acting,  or  which  is  to  change  it 
from  natural  to  spiritual,  can  only  be  slowly  received  and 
loved  ;  and  to  many,  when  first  presented,  it  cannot  be 
seen  at  all.  When  our  Lord  said  to  the  Jews,  "  If  a  man 
keep  my  saying,  he  shall  never  see  death,"  they  could  not 
drink  that  new  wine.  The  old  apparent  truth,  that  the 
death  of  the  body  was  the  death  of  the  man,  was  better 
wine  to  them.  They  therefore  answered,  "  Now  we  know 
that  thou  hast  a  devil.  Abraham  is  dead,  and  the  pro- 
phets," &c.  (John  viii,  52,  53.) 

The  Jews  obeyed  the  commandments,  in  the  letter ; 
but  they  kept  them  not  in  the  spirit :  they  did  not  love 
them.  And  they  were,  consequently,  bad  men.  And  the 


NEW  BOTTLES  FOR  NEW  WINE.  187 

world  was  perishing  under  their  teachings.  The  Lord 
therefore  came  and  established  the  Christian  Church ; 
and  He  told  His  disciples  that  His  words  were  spirit  and 
life ;  and  that,  if  they  would  enter  into  life,  they  must 
keep  the  commandments.  And  now,  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  eighteen  centuries,  how  poorly  are  the  com- 
mandments kept,  even  in  the  letter ;  and  how  little  are 
they  lived  and  believed  in,  in  the  spirit !  True,  in  the 
simple  letter,  they  are  the  way  of  life,  and  bring  heaven 
into  all  souls  that  sincerely  love  and  keep  them.  But 
how  few,  at  this  day,  are  willing  to  love  and  keep  them  ! 
And  fewer  still  are  willing  to  see  that  there  is  a  spiritual 
sense  in  those  commandments ;  and  that  men  can  steal, 
and  lie,  and  murder,  and  commit  adultery,  and  break  the 
Sabbath,  and  transgress  every  divine  law  with  their  souls, 
while  their  bodies  are  rigidly  keeping  those  laws  in  the 
letter.  Thus  did  the  Jews. 

Let  us  then  consider  the  necessity  of  new  bottles  for 
new  wine,  and  the  impossibility  of  receiving  it  into  old 
bottles.  When  the  Lord  says,  "  He  that  eateth  my  flesh 
and  drinketh  my  blood  hath  everlasting  life,"  the  old  bot- 
tle, or  natural  thought,  presents  us  with  the  broken  body 
and  shed  blood  of  the  Lord  as  the  ground  of  salvation 
through  faith :  but  the  new  bottle  or  spiritual  thought, 
presents  us,  by  correspondence,  with  His  offered  goodness 
and  truth,  which  the  old  bottle  cannot  receive,  because  it 
is  a  different  idea.  Therefore,  from  the  new  bottle,  or 
spiritual  thought,  we  eat  the  bread  and  drink  the  wine, 
as  an  assurance,  that  it  is  only  by  the  actual  reception  of 
the  goodness  and  truth  of  the  Lord,  into  our  souls,  that  we 
can  be  born  again,  or  have  eternal  life  in  heaven :  and 
also,  that,  by  the  continual  reception  and  appropriation  of 
these  principles,  we  must  grow  up  from  small  beginnings, 


188  NEW   BOTTLES   FOR  NEW   WINE. 

into  full  stature  of  men  in  Christ  Jesus — from  spiritual 
infants  we  must  become  full-grown  men. 

Hence,  a  great  change  is  gradually  coming  over  the 
Christian  world.  And  it  must  continue  till  the  Lord,  ac- 
cording to  promise,  make  all  things  new.  Many  persons 
are  now  seeing  many  tilings  in  the  "Word,  in  a  very  differ- 
ent light  from  that  in  which  they  were  seen  fifty  years 
ago.  This  change  is  in  consequence  of  a  change  of  state 
and  standpoint.  One  state  looks  at  things  through  the 
old  bottles  ;  and  the  other,  through  the  new.  Therefore, 
in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  supper,  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  persons  in  natural  thought  differ  very  widely 
from  those  of  persons  in  spiritual  thought.  For,  in  the 
literal  thought,  men  receive  the  bread  and  wine  as  a 
memorial  that  Christ  died  for  them  ;  and,  in  that  act,  they 
do  show  forth  His  death  till  He  come.  But,  in  the  spir- 
itual thought,  the  Lord  has  come,  as  spiritual  truth ;  so 
that  we  no  longer  partake  of  that  supper,  to  show  forth 
His  death  till  He  come :  but  we  receive  the  bread  and 
wine,  as  symbols  of  the  Lord's  goodness  and  truth,  re- 
ceived into  the  soul,  at  this,  His  second  coming,  as  the 
spirit  and  life  of  that  soul.  In  natural  thought  men  re- 
ceive these  aliments  in  commemoration  of  Christ's  death 
and  departure.  In  spiritual  thought,  we  receive  them  as 
symbols  of  His  life  and  second  coming.  In  natural 
thought,  men  see  the  letter,  only,  of  the  Word,  which  is 
as  a  cloud,  hiding  the  Lord  till  He  come.  Therefore,  in 
His  absence,  they  dwell  much  upon  the  death  and  suffer- 
ings of  His  body.  In  spiritual  thought  we  see  the  Lord 
Himself,  as  the  spiritual  truth,  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  or  literal  sense  of  the  "Word,  and  we  receive  Him 
with  joy  and  gladness,  dwelling  upon  His  goodness  and 
truth  as  the  living  God,  manifest.  In  natural  thought, 


NEW  BOTTLES  FOB  NEW  WINE.  189 

men  have  done  right,  and  their  duty,  in  sincerely  and 
piously  worshipping  the  Lord,  in  this  ordinance,  according 
to  their  understanding  of  the  letter,  in  showing  forth  His 
death  till  He  come.  •  And  they  will  receive  their  reward. 
But,  in  spiritual  thought,  in  order  to  do  our  duty,  we 
now,  instead  of  showing  forth  the  Lord's  death  and 
absence,  must  show  forth  His  life  and  presence  ;  by  mani- 
festing His  goodness  and  truth,  in  our  feelings  and  ac- 
tions toward  mankind.  In  natural  thought,  men  have 
placed  the  salvation  of  the  world  upon  the  natural  death 
and  sufferings  of  the  Lord,  as  a  substitute  for  man's  fu- 
ture punishment ;  applying  this  salvation  to  the  soul,  by 
means  of  faith  in  the  atoning  merits  of  that  suffering. 
"While  in  spiritual  thought,  we  place  man's  salvation  upon 
the  spiritual  resurrection  and  life  of  Christ,  in  which  He 
conquered  death  and  hell  in  our  nature,  giving  us  precept 
and  example,  and  the  power  of  His  Spirit,  whereby  we, 
through  faith  in  His  Word,  can  conquer  death  and  hell,  in 
ourselves,  and  rise  from  the  spiritual  death  of  the  love  of 
self  and  the  world,  to  the  spiritual  life  of  the  love  of  God 
and  the  neighbor,  and  thereby  be  washed,  and  made 
clean,  in  the  blood  of  Christ ;  or,  in  the  life  and  power  of 
the  truth,  constantly  shed  abroad  from  the  risen  and  ever- 
living  Lord,  for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

In  natural  thought,  from  its  darkness  and  obscurity, 
in  their  natural  minds,  men  have  become  divided  into 
various  sects  with  conflicting  views.  In  spiritual  thought, 
from  the  clear  and  indisputable  light,  harmonizing  the 
whole  "Word  in  its  letter  and  spirit,  all  the  people  of  earth 
will  gradually  be  brought  together,  and  will  see  eye  to 
eye.  In  natural  thought,  men  suppose  the  Lord  says,  of 
His  natural  blood,  "  This  is  My  blood  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins." 


190  NEW   BOTTLES   FOB    NEW   WINE. 

In  spiritual  thought,  we  understand  by  His  blood,  the  truth 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  ever  shed  for  the  cleansing  of  souls. 
For,  as  the  Holy  Spirit  is  declared  in  the  "Word  to  be  the 
spirit  of  truth  ;  what  can  be  the  blood  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  remits  sins,  but  the  life  and  power  of  the  spir- 
itual truth,  operating  by  means  of  the  literal  truth,  cleans- 
ing the  soul  from  all  its  sins,  by  repentance,  faith,  charity, 
and  obedience?  And  what  else  can  remit  sins,  or  change 
men's  hearts  and  minds  and  remove  their  evils,  but  the 
Spirit  of  the  living  God — the  power  of  truth  and  love  ? 
Christ  remitted  sins,  cast  out  devils,  and  cleansed  souls, 
while  He  was  here  in  the  flesh.  And  He  did  it  by  the 
blood  of  the  New  Testament,  or  by  the  power  of  the 
spirit  of  truth,  operating  through  the  natural  truth  upon 
their  minds,  until  they  saw  their  evils  and,  with  great 
faith,  broke  off  from  their  sins  by  righteousness.  This 
great  faith  was  faith  in  the  blood  of  Christ ;  or,  in  other 
words,  it  was  faith  in  Christ's  word  and  power.  They 
believed  what  He  told  them ;  and,  'believing  it,  they  did 
it.  They  had  no  faith  whatever  in  the  blood  of  His 
natural  body.  It  had  not  been  shed.  They  had  not  the 
least  idea,  or  thought,  of  any  blood,  in  their  minds.  It  is 
simply  because  the  life  and  power  given  to  the  natural 
body  operate  by  means  of  the  blood,  that  the  word 
"  blood  "  is  used,  in  Scripture,  to  denote  the  life  and  power 
of  the  soul.  Herein  is  true  correspondence.  Faith,  there- 
fore, in  the  power  of  Christ,  is  faith  in  the  truth  of  His 
Word,  as  the  wisdom  of  the  Most  High  God. 

If,  then,  we  have  faith  in  the  truth  of  His  Word  strong 
enough  to  induce  us  to  repent  of  our  sins,  and  break  off 
from  them  by  righteousness  and,  thereby,  receive  God's 
laws  into  our  hearts ;  we  shall  drink  into  our  souls 
Christ's  blood  of  the  New  Testament ;  and,  in  the  process, 


NEW    BOTTLES    FOE   NEW    WINE,  191 

it  will,  by  means  of  the  natural  truth,  cleanse  and  purify 
us  from  all  sins.  Therefore,  the  blood  of  Christ,  which 
cleanses  from  all  sin,  is  the  spiritual  truth  of  the  "Word, 
operating  by  means  of  the  natural  truth ;  and  we  must 
drink  this  spiritual  truth,  or  have  no  life  in  us. 

Again,  the  common  creeds  of  Christendom  acknowl- 
edge the  truth  of  a  trinity  in  God.  But  one  man  sees  that 
trinity  in  natural  thought,  as  three  distinct  persons,  and 
supposes  that,  in  some  mysterious  way,  they  make  one 
God ;  while  another,  in  spiritual  thought,  sees  three  dis- 
tinct elements  of  the  one,  undivided  Jehovah. 

So,  again,  the  one  in  natural  thought,  sees  the  Lord  by 
faith  coming  again  into  the  natural  world  in  the  natural 
clouds,  to  be  seen  by  natural  eyes :  while  the  other,  in 
spiritual  thought,  sees  Him  coining,  as  the  Word,  or  spir- 
itual truth,  into  the  mental  world,  or  human  mind,  in 
mental  clouds,  to  be  seen  by  the  understandings  of  men — 
the  mental  eyes. 

Again,  the  one  in  natural  thought,  sees  a  natural  resur- 
rection ;  a  body  rising  up  out  of  the  grave,  thousands  of 
years  after  it  had  been  buried,  and  uniting  again  with  the 
soul ;  the  other,  in  spiritual  thought,  sees  a  spiritual  body, 
rising  from  the  natural  body  at  death.  The  one  in  natural 
thought,  looks  at  the  man's  body  as  the  man  ;  and  speaks 
of  the  man's  being  dead  when  the  body  dies :  the  other 
in  spiritual  thought,  looks  at  the  man's  soul  as  the  man, 
and  speaks  of  him  as  alive  when  the  body  is  dead.  The 
one  in  natural  thought,  spea*ks  of  man's  introducing  sin 
into  the  natural  world  by  his  body's  eating  the  fruit  of  a 
natural  tree  :  the  one  in  spiritual  thought  speaks  of  man's 
introducing  sin  into  the  world  of  mind,  by  his  soul's  eating 
of  what  is  evil  and  false.  The  one  in  natural  thought, 
looks  upon  heaven  as  a  place  of  rewards,  by  outward  com- 


192  NEW    BOTTLES   FOE   NEW    WINE. 

forts  and  blessings ;  and  upon  hell,  as  a  place  of  punish- 
ment, by  outward  inflictions :  while  the  one  in  spiritual 
thought  looks  upon  heaven  as  a  state  of  inward  peace  and 
happiness  of  mind,  resulting  from  the  love  of  good ;  -  and 
upon  hell,  as  a  state  of  inward  troubles  and  unhappiness 
of  mind,  resulting  from  the  love  of  evil.  Therefore,  the 
one  in  natural  thought  looks  upon  the  torments  of  hell  as 
inflicted  by  God ;  while  the  one  in  spiritual  thought  looks 
upon  them  as  the  result  of  the  evils  of  the  heart :  conse- 
quently, the  one  in  natural  thought  looks  upon  God  as 
angry  and  revengeful  toward  the  wicked ;  while  the  one  in 
spiritual  thought  looks  upon  the  anger  and  revenge  as 
being  in  the  wicked  man,  who  would  judge  of  God  accord- 
ing to  what  he  would  do  himself.  Thus,  in  order  to  reach 
angry  men,  and  excite  them  to  repentance  and  fear,  God's 
"Word  comes  down  to  them,  presenting  Him,  as  He  appears 
to  them  to  be. 

Again,  the  one  in  natural  thought  looks  upon  sin,  as  a 
wicked  act ;  upon  repentance  of  sin,  as  sorrow  for  the  act ; 
and  upon  the  remission  of  sin,  as  the  pardon  of  the  pen- 
alty of  the  act :  while  the  one  in  spiritual  thought,  looks 
upon  sin  as  a  depraved  and  evil  desire  ;  upon  repentance 
of  sin,  as  sorrow  for  the  desire ;  and  upon  the  remission 
of  sin,  as  the  removal  of  the  desire :  so  that  a  person, 
whose  sins  are  all  remitted,  is  pure  and  holy — prepared 
for  heaven. 

Thus,  we  see  that  the  change  from  a  natural  to  a  spir- 
itual mode  of  thought,  presents  an  entirely  new  view  of 
all  the  doctrines  of  the  "Word.  It  turns  the  whole  course 
of  human  life  into  a  new  channel  of  thought,  feeling,  and 
action.  "Well  may  our  Lord  have  said,  No  man  hawing 
drunk  old  wine,  straightway  desireth  new. 

The  progress,  therefore,  of  this  mighty  work,  by  which 


NEW  BOTTLES  FOE   NEW   WINE.  193 

the  entire  face  of  humanity  on  earth  is  to  be  turned  up- 
ward from  time  and  matter,  toward  God  and  heaven, 
must  necessarily  be  slow.  For  the  spiritual  principles 
have  to  be  embraced  as  a  whole  ;  and  that  must  be  done 
by  a  full  surrender  of  all  the  old  bottles  or  doctrines,  as 
unfit  for  the  new  wine.  For,  our  Lord  says,  "  No  man 
putteth  a  piece  of  new  cloth  unto  an  old  garment ;  for 
that  which  is  put  in  to  fill  it  up  taketh  from  the  garment, 
and  the  rent  is  made  worse."  (Matt,  ix,  16.)  The  old  gar- 
ment is  the  old  doctrine ;  the  new  garment  is  the  new. 
The  old  is  natural  or  apparent  truth,  adulterated  by  man ; 
the  new,  is  spiritual  or  real  truth. 

Now,  you  cannot  take  parts  of  two  garments  and  put 
them  together.  The  Lord  says,  "  The  new  agreeth  not 
with  the  old."  If  you  take  the  new  doctrine  of  the  trin- 
ity, in  one  person,  where  "  God  is  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself,"  you  cannot  bring  into  the  same 
garment  the  old  idea,  that  God  is  out  of  Christ ;  and 
Christ  is  reconciling  God  to  the  world  and  the  world  to 
God :  for  here  are  two  persons.  And  Christ  therefore 
must  be  either  a  finite  man,  or  else  there  must  be  two 
Gods. 

Nor  will  any  part  of  the  old  doctrine  or  garment  agree 
with  any  part  of  the  new.  We  must  take  the  new,  entire, 
as  the  Lord's  vesture,  woven  without  seam.  For  this  ves- 
ture, or  inner  garment  of  the  Lord,  denotes  the  spiritual 
sense  of  the  "Word,  which  is  one  perfect  system  of  truths, 
harmonious  and  inseparable ;  while  the  outer  garments  of 
the  Lord,  which  were  parted  among  the  soldiers,  denote 
the  literal  sense  which  has  been  parted  among  so  many 
sects. 

And,  in  further  confirmation  of  the  same  truth,  our 
Lord  says,  again,  "  New  wine  must  be  put  into  new  bot- 
9 


194:  NEW    BOTTLES   FOB   NEW    WINE. 

ties ;  and  both  are  preserved."  Here,  again,  the  new 
bottles  are  the  new  doctrines,  and  the  new  wine  is  the 
spiritual  truth  that  infills  them.  This  new  wine  cannot 
be  contained  in  the  old,  perverted  bottles  or  doctrines. 
For  illustration  : — Our  natural  idea  is  the  bottle,  and  the 
truth  in  the  idea  is  the  wine.  Now,  the  truth  contained 
in  the  idea  of  the  resurrection  of  a  spiritual  body,  from 
the  natural,  at  death,  cannot  be  contained  in  the  idea  of 
the  resurrection  of  a  dead,  natural  body,  from  the  grave. 
The  spiritual  truth  cannot  enter  that  natural  idea  or  bot- 
tle. The  moment  that  it  does,  the  bottle  is  burst ;  the 
idea  is  gone — lost  in  mystery. 

Now,  we  cannot,  if  we  would,  give  up  the  entire  old 
system  of  doctrines,  and  embrace  the  entire  new  system  at 
once.  "  No  man  having  drunk  old  wine,  straightway  de- 
sireth  new."  We  first  receive  some  leading  feature  of  the 
new  system.  The  reasonableness  of  its  truth  strikes  us 
forcibly.  But  now  all  the  various  points,  in  the  old  sys- 
tem, are  at  war  with  it.  But  the  new  truth  stands  firm. 
And  the  more  the  old  doctrines  war  against  it,  the  strong- 
er it  stands,  and  the  weaker  they  become.  For  the  new 
is  developing  its  powers,  and  the  old  are  exposing  their 
weakness.  And  thus  the  strife  goes  on,  till  every  old 
bottle,  one  after  another,  is  burst  or  cast  aside,  and  the 
new  wine  is  joyfully  received  into  new  bottles,  and  both 
are  preserved. 

But  this  takes  time :  for  the  new  truth  has  all  kinds 
of  enemies  to  fight ;  enemies  without  and  enemies  within 
— the  hosts  of  hell  and  popular  prejudice,  and  pride  of 
heart,  and  self-love,  and  all  the  evils  of  humanity.  But 
that  is  the  way  everything  new  and  valuable  to  our  race 
has  had  to  struggle  into  being.  And  he  is  a  valiant  sol- 
dier of  Christ  who  faithfully  fights  the  battle.  'Therefore 


NEW   BOTTLES   FOB   NEW   WINE.  195 

the  Lord  says,  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear 
and  trembling,  for  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you." 
"  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest."  "  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death, 
and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life."  And,  in  the  doing 
of  this  work,  the  Lord  says,  "  Behold,  I  make  all  things 
new."  "  Arise,  let  us  go  hence." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    COEEESPONDENCE    OF    SALT. 

MUCH  and  important  instruction  is  given,  in  the 
"Word,  in  the  use  of  the  term  £  salt.'  But  that  instruction 
cannot  be  rationally  seen  and  felt  by  the  soul,  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  spiritual  sense.  Indeed  there  is  much 
general  obscurity  and,  sometimes,  apparent  absurdity  in 
the  natural  ideas  alone  expressed.  But,  as  the  spiritual 
light  is  seen,  the  darkness  disappears  amid  the  glory  and 
beauty  of  the  Divine  Wisdom.  Thus,  when  the  Lord  says 
to  us,  "  Have  salt  in  yourselves,"  we  have  no  light  till  we 
see  the  correspondence  of  salt :  and  to  see  this,  we  must 
find  out  what  principle  in  the  mind  would  perform  the 
same  use  to  the  affections  and  thoughts,  which  salt  does 
to  natural  things. 

Now,  we  all  know  that  salt  preserves  meat  from  putre- 
faction. The  fibres  of  the  meat  denote  truths ;  and  the 
vessels  denote  goods.  The  salt  cleanses  these  vessels  and 
fibres,  by  removing  all  the  lifeless  blood  and  other  impure 
substances,  and  bringing  them  into  close  union  and  em- 
brace. Now,  because  salt  does  this,  it  denotes  the  union 
of  goodness  and  truth  by  regeneration.  This  is  the  speci- 
fic signification  of  salt,  when  used  in  a  good  sense,  in  the 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   SALT.  197 

Word.  It  denotes  the  union  of  goodness  and  truth  in  the 
human  mind.  For  goodness  and  truth,  united  in  the 
mind,  bring  together  all  the  affections  and  thoughts ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  they  expel  everything  impure 
and  uncongenial,  and  unite  the  whole  in  a  state  of  har- 
mony and  preservation. 

Now,  as  salt  is  the  great  preservative,  in  nature,  of 
things  from  decay  and  rot,  by  its  purifying  and  uniting 
qualities,  so  it  is,  therefore,  the  very  thing  in  nature  which 
denotes  the  union  of  goodness  and  truth  ia  the  mind. 
For,  without  this  union,  the  human  mind  must  inevitably 
fall  into  a  state  of  spiritual  putrefaction  and  death.  Thus 
we  see  that  new  and  important,  light  beams  from  the 
Holy  Word,  by  simply  knowing  the  correspondence  of  salt. 

We  can  now  understand,  specifically,  what  our  Saviour 
means  when  He  commands  us  to  have  salt  in  ourselves. 
He  means  that  we  must  love  the  Word  of  Life ;  that 
goodness  in  the  heart  must  be  united  with  truth  in  the 
head. 

Again,  the  Lord  says,  in  Mark,  "  Every  one  shall  be 
salted  with  fire."  Fire  denotes  love ;  hell  fire,  love  of 
evil ;  heavenly  fire,  love  of  good  or  truth.  A  person  with 
truth  in  his  head  only,  and  not  in  his  heart,  should  be 
salted  with  fire.  Love  is  goodness  in  action.  Let  him 
unite  love  with  the  truth,  and  the  work  is  done.  When 
a  person  is  in  the  possession  of  the  truth,  which  does  not 
satisfy  him,  let  him  obey  it  till  he  loves  it,  and  he  will 
salt  that  truth  with  fire  ;  he  will  unite  it  to  his  heart,  and 
all  will  be  peace.  And  we  read,  in  Judges,  that  Abime- 
lech  sowed  a  city  with  salt :  so,  we  should  bring  our 
hearts  into  love  and  obedience  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Word,  and  thus  sow  our  city  with  salt. 

In  Kings,  we  read,  that  the  men  of  Jericho  said  unto 


198  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   SALT. 

Elisha,  "  Behold,  I  pray  thee,  the  situation  of  this  city  is 
pleasant,  as  my  lord  seeth  :  but  the  water  is  naught,  and 
the  ground  barren.     And  he  said,  Bring  me  a  new  cruse, 
and  put  salt  therein.     And  they  brought  it  to  him.     And 
he  went  forth  unto  the  spring  of  the  waters,  and  cast  the 
salt  in  there,  and  said,  Thus  saith  the  LORD,  I  have  healed 
these  waters ;  there  shall  not  be  from  thence  any  more 
death  or  barren   land."     (2  Kings  ii;  19-21.)    Now  we 
cannot  see  why  salt  put  into  the  spring  should  make  the 
land  of  a  city  fruitful.     But  when  we  look  into  the  spirit- 
ual sense,  and  see  that  the  city  denotes  doctrines,  the  water, 
the  truth  of  the  doctrines,  and  the  land,  the  good  of  them  ; 
all  becomes  instructive,  clear,  and   practical.     For   the 
water,  or  truth  of  the  doctrines,  was  naught  or  worthless, 
because  it  was  not  loved ;  and  the  land,  or  good  of  the  doc- 
trines, barren,  because  separated  from  the  truth.     The  soil 
or  good  of  the  human  heart  will  not  bear  fruit  unless  the 
truth  comes  into  it,  or  is  loved,  any  more  than  natural 
land  will  bear  crops  without  rain  or  water.     But  as  salt 
denotes  the  union  of  goodness  and  truth  ;  the  putting  of 
the  salt  into  the  water,  by  the  prophet,  denotes  the  union 
of  goodness  and  truth  in  the  mind  by  the  Lord,  or  the 
"Word.     And  then  the  Lord  says,  "  I  have  healed  these 
waters ; "  that  is  to  say,  the  truths  are  no  longer  lifeless 
and  unhealthy,  for  they  are  loved.     And,  therefore,  the 
Lord  continues,  "  There  shall  not  be  from  thence  any 
more  death  or  barren  land ; "  that  is,  the  soul  will  no 
longer  be  dead  in  sin,  nor  the  heart  unfruitful.    For  good- 
ness and  truth  are  now  united  in  the  mind  ;  the  man  is 
spiritually  alive,  and  brings  forth  the  fruits  of  righteousness. 
Salt,  like  other  things  of  the  "Word,  is  sometimes  used 
in  an  opposite,  or  bad  sense ;  as  is  fire,  which  sometimes 
denotes  love  of  good,  and  sometimes  love  of  evil ;    and 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   SALT.  199 

water  denoting  either  truth  or  falsehood ;  a  city,  either 
true  or  false  doctrines  ;  and  so  forth.  But  we  may  see  at 
once,  by  the  light  in  which  a  term  is  used,  whether  it  is  to 
be  taken  in  a  good  or  a  bad  sense.  So  salt,  when  used  in 
the  Word,  means  either  the  union  of  goodness  and  truth, 
or  their  disunion.  •  It  is  used,  in  both  senses,  many  times 
in  the  Holy  Word.  In  the  case  of  Lot's  wife  it  is,  of 
course,  used  in  a  bad  sense,  which  is  known  from  the  fact 
that  Lot's  wife  disobeyed  the  command  of  the  angel  by 
looking  back.  And,  from  that  circumstance,  she  is  said  to 
have  become  a  pillar  of  salt.  Now  by  this  pillar  of  salt 
is  meant  the  disjunction  of  goodness  and  truth  in  the 
mind  of  Lot's  wife.  These  divine  principles  had  been 
united  in  her.  She  had  loved  the  truth.  But  she  dis- 
obeyed its  commands,  and  thus  turned  away  her  affections 
from  it.  This  disjunction  of  her  heart  from  the  truth  is 
what  is  meant  by  the  pillar  of  salt.  That  pillar  stands 
recorded  in  the  pages  of  Holy  Writ,  as  an  eternal  monu- 
ment of  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  turning  our  affections 
away  from  the  divine  truth,  and  thereby  losing  love  to 
God  and  the  neighbor.  God  has  made  that  pillar  a 
most  bold  and  conspicuous  mark,  in  the  journey  of  hu- 
man life,  cautioning  the  wayward  traveller  against  violat- 
ing the  laws  of  his  God,  and  thereby  separating  his  affec- 
tions from  the  truths  of  the  Holy  Writ. 

In  examining  the  subject  of  Lot's  wife  and  the  pillar 
of  salt,  about  which  so  much  has  been  written  and  said, 
let  us  remember  that  we  are  not  talking  about  natural 
salt,  nor  a  material  body,  but  of  that  principle  of  the  mind 
to  which  salt  corresponds,  and  which,  in  the  Divine  Word, 
is  called  salt.  And,  in  the  first  place,  let  us  see  what 
really  constituted  Lot's  wife,  and  forget  not  that  it  takes 
a  soul,  as  well  as  a  body,  to  make  a  wife.  And  now,  as 


200  THE  CORRESPONDENCE  OF   SALT. 

we  see  that  the  body  without  the  soul  would  not  be  Lot's 
wife,  and  as  mind  cannot  be  transmuted  into  matter, 
therefore,  we  see,  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  Lot's 
wife  to  become  a  pillar  of  natural  salt.  Besides,  the  Bible 
teaches  that  our  material  bodies  are  not  really  ourselves, 
but  tabernacles  of  clay,  in  which  we  dwell. 

They  who  elevate  their  thoughts  above  the  dust  they 
tread  upon,  must  surely  see  that  it  was  the  understandings 
and  the  wills,  the  knowing  and  the  loving  principles  in 
Lot  and  his  wife,  which  became  wedded,  and  which  consti- 
tuted them  truly  man  and  wife. 

But  let  us  view  the  subject  from  another  standpoint ; 
one  which  presents  a  very  general  mode  of  expression  in 
the  Holy  Word.  From  this  position  we  see  that  men  are 
sometimes  called  foxes,  sometimes  bears,  dogs,  serpents, 
trees,  rivers,  and  many  other  things.  Now,  it  does  not 
mean  that  the  bodies  of  men  are  foxes,  dogs,  trees,  or 
rivers,  for  they  have  men's  bodies.  It  is  then  the  state 
of  their  souls  that  is  meant,  for  this  is  the  divine  way  of 
describing  the  various  affections,  feelings,  passions,  and 
principles  of  the  human  mind.  Now,  if  the  Bible  calls 
Herod  a  fox,  and  Dan  a  lion's  whelp,  and  the  king  of 
Assyria  a  river,  and  Pharaoh  a  cedar  of  Lebanon,  with- 
out meaning  that  their  bodies  are  those  things,  could  it 
not,  by  the  same  law  of  language,  call  Lot's  wife  a  pillar 
of  salt,  without  meaning  that  her  body  was  transmuted 
from  flesh  and  bones  into  salt  ?  Indeed,  if  the  expression, 
pillar  of  salt,  does  not  teach  something  of  the  state 
of  Lot's  wife's  soul,  it  contains  no  practical  truth,  and  is 
void  of  spirit  and  life.  And  if  there  be  no  spirit  and  life 
in  it,  if  it  be  not  "  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for 
correction  and  for  instruction  in  righteousness,"  it  is  not 
the  Word  of  God.  There  must  bo  some  analogy,  there- 


THE   CORRESPONDENCE  OF   SALT,  201 

fore,  between  the  pillar  of  salt  and  the  state  of  Lot's  wife's 
mind  ;  and  that  analogy  is  the  thing  to  be  sought  after  in 
order  to  find  out  what  the  Lord  teaches  by  the  expression. 
And  that  analogy  is  clearly  seen  by  means  of  the  spirit- 
ual signification  of  salt,  which  shows,  conclusively,  that  it 
means  the  separation  of  her  affections  from  the  truth. 
And  that  this  was  the  case  with  Lot's  wife ;  that  her 
heart  had  turned  away  from  the  truth,  is  clearly  seen,  in 
the  light  of  correspondence,  by  the  act  of  her  looking 
lack.  The  narrative  says,  "  His  wife  looked  back  from 
behind  him.,  and  she  became  a  pillar  of  salt."  There  is 
therefore  a  positive  relation  between  the  formation  of  the 
pillar  of  salt  and  the  looking  back.  And  as  the  pillar  of 
salt  denotes  the  separation  of  goodness  and  truth  in  Lot's 
wife,  we  clearly  see  its  verification  in  the  act  of  looking 
back.  For  truth  is  the  male  element  of  the  mind,  and 
goodness  is  the  female  element. 

Now,  every  mind  has  these  two  elements.  Their 
union  in  the  mind  gives  spiritual  life ;  their  separation, 
spiritual  death.  The  man  or  husband  is,  by  correspond- 
ence, a  symbol  of  the  truth  ;  and  the  woman,  or  wife,  is  a 
symbol  of  goodness.  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  denote  a 
false  and  evil  state  of  mind.  Lot  and  his  wife  were  going 
away  from  those  cities.  Lot  was  before  his  wife.  Truth 
leads  the  way.  She  looked  back  from  behind  him.  He, 
the  husband,  denotes  the  truth :  she,  the  wife,  denotes 
goodness.  The  face  denotes  the  affections.  "When  she 
turned  her  face  or  affections  toward  Sodom  or  Gomorrah, 
or  toward  things  evil  and  false,  she  had  her  back  toward 
Lot,  or  the  truth.  This  act,  by  correspondence,  signifies 
an  entire  disunion  of  goodness  and  truth  in  Lot's  wife. 
For,  as  he  was  a  symbol  of  the  truth  and  she  of  goodness, 
it  teaches  that  she  had  turned  away  from  the  truth,  or 
9* 


202  THE   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   SALT. 

abandoned  it.  Her  spiritual  state,  therefore,  according 
to  the  sure  science  of  correspondences,  would  be  emphat- 
ically expressed  by  a  pillar  of  salt. 

Besides,  she  looked  toward  Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 
These  cities  denote  an  entire  state  of  the  love  of  self  and 
the  world.  The  fire  and  brimstone  denote  the  burning 
of  anger,  lust,  revenge,  and  hatred,  of  the  people  of  those 
cities  ;  or  of  false  doctrines.  In  that  act  of  Lot's  wife  we 
have  a  view  of  the  fall.  And  it  seems,  by  the  narrative, 
that  the  change  in  her  state  was  sudden,  like  an  act  of 
turning  around.  But  it  takes  years  to  separate  entirely 
the  affections  from  truth.  So  the  Fall  in  the  garden 
seems  to  be  sudden,  like  the  eating  of  an  apple ;  and  yet 
the  Fall  which  there  commenced  was  not  completed  till 
the  Lord  came  in  the  flesh.  And  both  of  these  Falls  are 
of  the  same  character — the  separation  of  goodness  and 
truth.  The  will,  or  female  element,  first  moves.  One  is 
symbolized  by  eating  forbidden  fruit,  and  the  other  by 
looking  back  to  things  evil  and  false. 

Now  if  salt,  in  the  "Word,  does  not  mean  what  I  have 
here  stated,  what  does  it  mean  ?  The  Lord  has  endowed 
us  with  reason,  and  says,  "  Come  now,  let  us  reason  to- 
gether." And  He  says,  to  good  people,  "  Ye  are  the  salt 
of  the  earth."  Now,  let  us  reason  : — Does  it  mean  salt  ? 

Again,  He  says,  u  Every  sacrifice  shall  be  salted  with 
salt ;  "  and  that  "  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spir- 
it." Does  it  mean  salt  ?  Again,  "  Have  salt  in  your- 
selves." Does  it  mean  salt  ?  Joshua  speaks  of  a  city 
of  salt.  Does  it  mean  salt  ?  Moses  says,  "  The  sons  of 
Ammon  shall  be  a  forsaken  place  of  nettles,  and  a  pit  of 
salt."  Does  this  mean  salt  ?  Moses,  again,  says,  "  Lot's 
wife  became  a  pillar  of  salt."  Does  this  mean  salt  ?  No. 
The  spiritual  sense  of  these  passages  opens  to  us  a  new 


THE    CORRESPONDENCE   OF    SALT.  203 

and  rational  light,  and  presents  us  with  living,  practical 
truth.  And  how  pointed  and  impressive  is  the  lesson 
which  we  are  taught  in  this  event  of  Lot's  wife,  and  by 
the  meaning  of  salt !  For  when  we  examine  poor  human 
nature  in  the  present  age,  by  this  spiritual  light,  how  con- 
spicuously do  the  pillars  of  salt  stand  out  in  the  highway 
of  life,  as  impressive  statuary  of  caution,  admonishing  us  to 
turn,  neither  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left,  from  the 
path  of  virtue.  For  every  individual,  whoever  he  may  be, 
and  whatever  he  may  profess,  who  has  the  truth  and  who 
knows  his  duty,  but  who  turns  away  from  that  truth  and 
refuses  to  love  and  obey  it,  may  see  himself  in  the  history 
of  Lot's  wife.  For  it  is  for  this  purpose  that  the  narrative 
was  recorded.  Such  a  person  is,  spiritually,  a  pillar  of 
salt,  with  his  face  toward  Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 

But,  though  sad  the  picture  of  fallen  and  perverse  hu- 
manity when  we  look  at  its  dark  side,  yet  a  brighter  day 
for  the  race  is  dawning.  And  as  it  is  generally  darkest 
and  coldest  just  before  sunrise  ;  so,  many,  who  are  now  in 
states  of  doubt  and  apathy,  may,  ere  long,  behold  with 
joy  the  glories  of  the  rising  sun  of  an  eternal  day.  For 
the  seals  of  the  Holy  Word  are  being  broken,  and  light  is 
coming  forth,  suited  to  the  wants  of  the  age.  It  comes, 
not  only  to  show  us  our  evils  and  their  nature,  origin,  and 
effects  ;  but,  also,  a  rational  way  to  get  rid  of  them,  and 
a  conviction  that,  unless  we  do  get  rid  of  them,  they  will 
surely  be  our  ruin.  Thus  a  new  and  living  way  is  open- 
ing before  us.  We  can  now  see  what  to  do,  and  how  to 
do  it.  The  fogs  of  mystery,  which  have  so  long  darkened 
the  path  of  life,  are  passing  away  before  the  beams  of  the 
rising  Sun  which  ushers  in  the  glorious  day  of  peace  and 
love  ;  a  day  when  the  human  race  will  have  salt  in  them- 
selves, and  thus  be  the  salt  of  the  earth.  And  for  the  fur- 


THE    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    SALT. 

therance  of  this  object  we  now  say,  in  the  beautiful  words 
of  the  apostle,  "  Let  your  speech  be  always  with  grace, 
seasoned  with  salt."  Or  let  your  words  be  always  true, 
gently  spoken,  coming  from  the  heart.  "  Have  salt  in 
yourselves,  and  have  peace  one  with  another." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

CORRESPONDENCE  OF  WATER :  AND  A  WORD  TO  BIBLICAL  SKEPTICS, 
FROM  THE  CASE  OF  JONAH,  SWALLOWED  BY  A  GREAT  FISH. 

ONE  of  the  leading  features  of  the  "Word  is  water. 
This  is  because  water  is  a  symbol  of  the  Divine  truth — 
the  great  element  of  the  human  mind,  of  which  the  Word 
everywhere  treats.  Water  is  sometimes  mentioned  as  a 
means  of  life,  and  sometimes  of  death.  This  is  because, 
in  a  bad  sense,  it  denotes  falsehood ;  and  in  that  sense  it 
is  spoken  of  as  destroying  men  by  a  flood,  as  in  the  Mo- 
saic deluge.  And  so  in  Ezekiel,  where,  prophesying  of 
the  church  and  its  doctrines,  the  Word  says,  "  Thus  saith 
the  Lord  Jehovah,  When  I  shall  make  thee  a  desolate 
city,  like  the  cities  that  are  not  inhabited ;  when  I  shall 
bring  up  the  deep  upon  thee,  and  great  waters  shall  cover 
thee ;.  when  I  shall  bring  thee  down  with  them  that  de- 
scend into  the  pit,  with  the  people  of  olden  time."  (xxvi, 
19,  20.)  Here  we  have  a  flood  similar  to  the  Mosaic  :  the 
city  denoting  the  doctrines  of  the  church  ;  the  people,  the 
members  ;  and  the  waters,  falsehoods.  And  the  prophecy 
declares  that  they  shall  be  destroyed  like  the  people  of 
olden  time,  alluding  to  the  flood.  And  as  the  Jewish 
church  was  not  destroyed  by  a  natural  flood,  and  yet 


206  A   WORD   TO   BIBLICAL    SKEPTICS. 

•shared  the  same  fate  of  the  people  in  the  days  of  Noah,  so 
both  floods  must  have  been  by  falsehoods.  And  in  many 
other  places  waters  are  mentioned  as  inundating  and  de- 
stroying the  church. 

Now  the  sea,  when  mentioned  in  the  Word,  denotes 
knowledge  in  the  human  mind,  whether  that  knowledge 
be  true,  false,  or  mixed.  Every  man,  therefore,  has  his 
sea  of  knowledge  within  the  shores  of  Jiis  memory.  This 
sea  is  made  up  of  all  that  he  knows.  All  the  sources  of 
information  which  he  has  are  as  springs  or  wells  of  water  ; 
and  the  knowledges  he  is  gaining  from  them,  whether  sci- 
entific, civil,  or  religious,  are  so  many  streams  running 
into  the  sea  of  his  memory. 

In  this  sea  of  knowledge  he  lives  and  moves,  as  a  fish 
in  the  ocean.  Out  of  it  he  could  not  stir  nor  breathe  ;  for 
he  would  know  nothing,  and  have  no  life.  And  so  a 
community  has  its  sea  of  knowledge,  out  of  which  it  can- 
not move.  This  human  knowledge  was  the  sea  in  which 
the  apostles  were  to  fish,  when  the  Lord  called  them  to 
be  fishers  of  men.  For  men  can  be  caught  only  within 
the  sea  of  their  own  knowledge  ;  because  the  net  or  hook 
of  truth  must  take  hold  of  their  free  wills  and  understand- 
ings. Thus  there  is  no  stratagem  in  this  fishing.  Men 
are  brought  within  the  stronghold  or  power  of  the  truth 
rationally  and  voluntarily.  When  we  clearly  understand 
the  scripture  where  Peter  was  told,  by  the  Lord,  to  go  to 
the  sea  and  cast  a  hook,  and  take  up  the  first  fish  that 
came  up,  and  that  when  he  had  opened  his  mouth  lie 
would  find  a  piece  of  money,  we  behold  a  beautiful  illus- 
tration of  the  effect  of  the  Divine  truth  upon  the  human 
mind  that  heartily  receives  it.  For  the  fish  denotes  a 
man  affectionately  receiving  the  truth  of  the  Word.  This 
truth  is  spiritual  riches,  represented  by  money.  And  he 


A    WORD   TO   BIBLICAL    SKEPTICS.  207 

who  heartily  receives  this  truth — these  riches — will  gladly 
open  his  mouth  and  speak  the  truth.  The  precious  treas- 
ures of  the  Gospel  will  be  ever  found  upon  his  tongue  and 
his  lips.  Yes,  whenever  Peter,  the  rock  upon  which  the 
Lord  builds  His  church — the  Divine  truth — comes  to  the 
sea  of  man's  knowledge,  and  takes  hold  of  his  heart  by 
the  power  of  the  Word,  that  man  will  open  his  mouth 
and  present  to  the  Lord  the  tribute  money  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving,  of  truth  and  justice. 

This  mental  sea  is  the  real  one  from  which  we  are  to 
be  spiritually  instructed,  where  the  disciples  were  com- 
manded by  the  Lord  to  u  cast  the  net  on  the  right  side  of 
the  ship."  For,  whatever  the  outward  transactions  may 
have  been,  we  must  look  through  them  and  above  them 
into  the  world  of  mind.  There  we  must  find  the  sea  of 
knowledge,  the  ship  of  doctrines,  and  the  net  of  the 
truth  ;  and  thus  we  must  see  the  fishers  of  men  going,  by 
means  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Word  and  in  the  power  of 
the  truth,  to  the  understandings  of  the  people,  to  draw 
them,  by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord,  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

As  the  natural  ship,  which  is  a  beautiful  symbol  of 
the  doctrines  of  the  Holy  Word,  by  which  we  are  carried 
across  the  troublous  sea  of  life  to  the  peaceful  haven  of 
heavenly  rest,  floats  upon  the  surface  of  the  natural  sea, 
so  we  are  taught  that  the  doctrines  were  above,  and  not 
in,  the  sea  of  knowledge  in  which  the  apostles  were  to 
fish,  or  to  teach,  in  order  to  catch  men.  But  as  man  re- 
ceives the  doctrines  of  love  to  God  and  the  neighbor,  he 
will  be  raised  above  the  sea  of  natural  truth  into  spiritual 
light,  where  he  will  feel  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  the  natural  ship  feels  the  breeze.  While  man  is  im- 
mersed in  the  things  of  this  world,  in  the  sea  of  self-wis- 


208  A   WORD   TO    BIBLICAL    SKEPTICS. 

dom,  lie  cannot  feel  that  heavenly  influence.  But  as  he 
is  elevated,  he  comes  from  the  love  of  natural  things  into 
the  love  of  spiritual ;  he  is  in  a  new  atmosphere  of 
thoughts  and  feelings :  the  spiritual  plane  of  his  mind  is 
opened  to  understand  the  truth,  and  to  feel  the  power  of 
the  spirit. 

The  net  with  which  the  apostles  were  fishing  denotes 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  All  the  varieties  of  the 
principles  of  truth,  in  the  whole  doctrines,  are  there  rep- 
resented as  brought  together  and  interwoven  into  a  net 
as  one.  And  when  the  truths  of  the  "Word,  in  their  com- 
bined strength,  are  seen  and  understood,  and  are  thence 
brought  to  take  hold  on  the  heart,  to  circumscribe,  con- 
trol, and  direct  the  actions  ;  there  is  great  power  in  them, 
and  men  feel  and  acknowledge  their  force  and  influence. 

But  why  are  we  commanded  to  cast  the  net  on  the 
right  side  of  the  ship  ?  The  natural  body  is  the  proper 
representative  of  the  mind.  And,  throughout  the  entire 
"Word,  the  right  organs  of  the  body  have  relation  to 
things  of  the  will,  and  the  left  organs  to  things  of  the 
understanding.  Now,  as  the  ship  denotes  doctrines,  and 
the  net  the  combined  powers  of  doctrines,  and  as  the 
right  side  of  the  ship  denotes  the  love  of  those  doctrines, 
and  the  left  side  the  understanding  of  them ;  therefore,  to 
cast  the  net  on  the  right  side  of  the  ship  would  be  to 
teach  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  from  the  heart — from  the 
love  of  those  doctrines  and  the  love  of  the  neighbor. 
Therefore,  we  are  here  taught  that  if  we  would  come 
effectually  to  men,  we  must  come,  not  only  to  their  intel- 
lects, but  also  to  their  hearts.  The  net  cast  on  the  left 
side  of  the  ship,  or  from  the  understanding  only,  will 
have  no  controlling  power.  The  reason  is,  there  will  be 
no  life  in  it,  no  love,  nothing  to  win  the  heart,  nothing  to 


A   WORD   TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS.  209 

induce  men  to  enter.  Men  do  not  like  to  have  the  cold 
cords  of  restraint  and  dictation  thrown  around  them, 
against  their  wills.  Truth  alone  is  always-  inefficient.  It 
must  come  from  the  heart,  in  kind,  persuasive,  and  gentle 
influences.  It  must  reach  the  feelings  and  the  sympa- 
thies by  carrying  with  it  the  feelings  and  the  sympathies. 
The  net  must  be  cast  on  the  right  side  of  the  ship. 

The  narrative  says,  that  when  Peter  heard  that  it  was 
the  Lord,  he  girt  his  fisher's  coat  about  him,  for  he  was 
naked,  and  cast  himself  into  the  sea.  Now,  coat  means 
outward  deportment.  A  true  fisher's  coat  is  a  heavenly 
robe  of  true  sincerity  and  kindness.  It  is  a  sphere  of 
goodness  and  mercy  which  we  like  to  see  in  the  conduct 
of  a.  teacher. 

Peter  was  naked,  that  is,  his  self-righteousness  was  ex- 
posed. He  had  not  on  the  robe  of  true  righteousness.  He 
was  teaching  from  his  own  understanding  alone — from 
the  left  side  of  the  ship.  The  Lord  was  not  in  his  heart. 

But  when  the  Lord  stood  upon  the  shore,  there  was  a 
new  state  of  things.  For  the  Lord  upon  the  shore  was 
the  truth  in  the  heart.  The  land  corresponds  to  the  will. 
Thus  the  truth  began  to  be  loved.  And  when  the  truth 
was  really  in  the  disciples'  hearts  ;  when  they  loved  and 
depended  upon  the  Lord,  and  acted  from  His  spirit,  they 
cast  the  net  on  the  right  side  of  the  ship :  then  Peter 
could  put  on  the  robe  of  truth  and  love,  and  go  down 
into  the  sea  of  the  people's  minds,  and  meet  them  accord- 
ing to  their  states.  While  the  Lord  was  not  on  the  shore, 
while  Jesus  was  not  in  their  feelings,  the  robe  was  not  on, 
and  it  was  mental  darkness  and  night  witli  them.  They 
had  been  fishing  all  night,  and  had  caught  nothing.  But 
the  Lord  on  the  shore,  or  the  truth  loved,  brought  the 
morning  light  into  the  soul,  and  they  were  now  ready  to 


210  A   WORD   TO    BIBLICAL    SKEPTICS. 

approach  men  aright,  or  from  the  heart.  Before  the  Lord 
was  on  the  shore,  the  disciples  were  in  spiritual  hunger, 
as  well  as  in  nakedness  and  darkness.  For  the  Lord  said 
unto  them,  "  Children,  have  ye  any  meat  ?  They  an- 
swered Him,  No."  But  when  the  Lord  was  in  their 
heart,  and  they  had  cast  the  net  on  the  right  side  of  the 
ship,  and  it  was  filled  with  fishes,  and  the  disciples  had 
come  to  the  land,  or  to  the  love  of  goodness,  "  they  saw  a 
fire  of  coals  there,  and  fish  laid  thereon,  and  bread." 

Now  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  these  things  are  men- 
tioned as  occurring  after  the  Lord  had  risen  from  the  sep- 
ulchre, and  that  this  fire  and  fish  and  bread  are  of  the 
Lord's  providing,  and  not  the  fish  that  they  had  caught ; 
they  had  not  yet  drawn  the  net  to  land.  The  fire  .dc- 
notes  tbe  Divine  love;  the  fish,  scientific  truths  of  the 
Word,  and  the  bread,  the  good  of  those  truths.  Now,  as 
fishes  denote  scientific  truths,  so  the  fishes  caught  in  the 
net  of  the  Holy  "Word  denote  persons  receiving  those  sci- 
entific truths  of  the  doctrines.  Such  persons  represent 
fishes,  because  their  minds  are  being  exercised  with  the 
scientific  truths  to  which  fishes  correspond.  It  may  be 
asked  why  fishes  denote  scientifics.  We  answer,  It  is 
because  water  denotes  truth,  and  water  is  said  in  Genesis 
to  bring  forth  the  fishes  ;  therefore  they  must  correspond 
to  something  that  truth  brings  forth.  And  as  all  real 
sciences  are  produced  from  truth,  so  sciences  are  nothing 
but  truths  brought  down  into  rational  forms  or  rules  of 
thought,  for  practical  illustrations.  And  fishes  are  beau- 
tiful correspondences  to  those  scientific  truths ;  because 
all  sciences  are  developed  and  exercised  in  the  sea  of 
man's  knowledge,  the  same,  by  correspondence,  as  fishes 
are  developed  and  exercised  in  the  natural  sea.  And 
how  much  science  it  must  require  to  understand  the  form 


A  WORD  TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS.  211 

and  use  of  simply  the  bones  that  are  in  fishes  and  their 
application  to  the  water  for  movement.  There  is  nothing 
else  in  nature  that  so  fully  represents  scientific  principles 
as  the  fishes  do.  Ichthyology,  therefore,  may  be  called  a 
science  which  looks  into  scientific  principles.  The  net, 
which  holds  the  people  caught,  denotes  the  combined 
strength  and  power  of  those  truths,  when  received  from 
the  right  side  of  the  ship,  or  from  the  influence  of  the 
love  of  those  doctrines.  And  the  disciples,  now  on  the 
land  with  the  Lord,  or,  in  other  -words,  feeling  the  good 
of  the  Lord's  love  in  their  hearts,  are  enabled  to  see  the 
coals  of  fire,  and  fish  laid  thereon,  and  bread ;  that  is, 
they  are  in  a  state  to  understand  that  the  Lord  gives, 
from  His  love,  scientific  truths  and  goods  to  men.  And 
while  their  minds  are  in  this  clear  state  of  perception, 
they  feel  a  yearning  love  for  the  people  in  the  net,  or  for 
persons  interested  in  the  doctrines.  This  feeling  is  de- 
noted by  the  Lord's  saying,  "  Bring  of  the  fish  which  ye 
have  now  caught."  They  feel  a  yearning  desire  for  their 
salvation.  And  from  this  high  state  of  spiritual  affection 
and  power,  they  can  reach  the  heart  of  those  in  the  net ; 
and  they  are  thus  drawn  to  the  land,  or  come  into  the 
love  of  the  good  of  the  doctrine.  And  under  this  state  of 
things  the  disciples  feast  their  own  souls  upon  these  scien- 
tific goods  and  truths.  This  is  denoted  by  its  being  said 
that  "  Jesus  then  cometh  and  taketh  bread,  and  giveth 
them,  and  fish  likewise." 

Now,  this  mental  sea  is  the  one  into  which  Jonah  was 
cast  when  he  was  swallowed  by  a  great  fish.  Jonah  was 
commanded  by  the  Lord  to  go  to  Nineveh,  and  cry 
against  it  for  its  wickedness.  But  Jonah  disobeyed  this 
command,  and  started  for  Tarshish,  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord.  We  must  now  try  to  forget  Jonah's  body,  and 


212  A  WORD   TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS. 

look  into  his  mind  for  all  the  things  that  take  place  ;  re- 
membering that  all  natural  things  denote  things  of  the 
mind,  and  that  places  denote  states  of  mind :  heaven, 
a  happy  state  ;  hell,  a  miserable  state  ;  Jerusalem,  a  true 
state.  And  that  to  go  from  one  place  to  another  means 
to  advance  from  one  state  of  mind  to  another. 

As  a  city  denotes  doctrines,  so  Nineveh,  in  this  chap- 
ter, denotes  a  state  of  mind  in  false  doctrines,  which  can 
be  overcome,  if  man  will  go  to  Nineveh,  or  look  into  his 
state,  and  cry  against  his  falses,  or  fight  them.  This  we 
may  know,  because  Jonah  was  commanded  to  go  there, 
and  cry  against  its  sinful  principles.  It  was  Jonah  him- 
self that  was  in  this  false  state  of  mind  denoted  by  Nine- 
veh. He  had  some  good  natural  principles,  but  they 
were  asleep.  God  wanted  him  to  arise,  wake  up,  and  go 
to  Nineveh ;  that  is,  to  examine  into  his  condition,  and 
fight  against  his  false  propensities.  And  so  the  Lord 
now  says  to  all  who  are  resting  quietly  in  their  falses  and 
evils,  "  Arise,  and  go  to  Nineveh,  that  great  city,  and  cry 
against  it." 

But,  instead  of  going  to  Nineveh,  Jonah  rose  up  to 
flee  unto  Tarshish  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.  Now 
Tarshish  denotes  an  external  or  natural  state  of  mind, 
which  trusts  in  man's  goodness.  This  we  may  see,  be- 
cause, in  going  to  Tarshish,  it  says  he  went  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord.  The  presence  of  the  Lord  is  a  state 
of  mind  looking  toward  the  Lord.  And  as  Tarshish  was 
away  from  the  Lord,  it  denotes  a  state  of  mind  looking 
away  from  tho  Lord  toward  self.  Therefore  it  says  he 
went  to  Joppa,  and  took  ship  for  Tarshish. 

Now,  ship  denotes  doctrines,  because  it  is  a  universal 
law  of  correspondences  that  anything  by  which  our  bodies 
are  carried  denotes  doctrines,  by  which  our  souls  progress. 


A  WORD  TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS.  213 

Ship  for  Tarsliisli  denotes  doctrines  of  naturalism ;  trust- 
ing in  one's  own  wisdom  and  goodness  :  doctrines  which 
lead  away  from  the  Lord.  This  we  may  see,  because  it 
says  he  entered  the  ship,  and  paid  his  fare.  .To  pay  his 
fare  is  to  give  his  consent  to  the  doctrines.  Joppa  de- 
notes a  state  of  mind  prepared  to  embrace  those  doctrines, 
because  it  was  here  that  Jonah  entered  the  ship,  or  em- 
braced those  principles,  which  were  to  take  him  to  Tar- 
shish,  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord. 

Thus  Jonah  was  fairly  on  board  the  ship  of  natural- 
ism, sailing  for  Tarshish,  or  going  away  from  the  Lord. 
The  mariners,  to  manage  the  ship,  were  all  the  best  natu- 
ral principles  of  his  mind.  .They  were  principles  which 
still  had  in  them  some  natural  good — some  regard  for  na- 
ture's God.  The  sea  upon  which  he  was  sailing  was  the 
general  sea  of  his  own  knowledge.  And  while  thus  going 
his  own  way,  in  the  absence  of  God  and  His  laws,  a  storm 
of  warring  elements  arose,  in  the  sea  of  his  self-wisdom ; 
and  doubts  and  darkness  came  over  the  horizon  of  his 
mind.  This  condition  called  up  into  action  all  the  re- 
maining principles  of  good  in  his  soul.  These  principles 
of  good  began  to  feel  that  their  ship  of  naturalism  was 
trembling,  and  ready  to  break  to  pieces.  But  Jonah's 
self-wisdom  overruled.  By  this  we  are  taught  that  Jo- 
nah's natural  judgment  was  losing  all  confidence  in  any 
religion  whatever.  The  mariners — the  better,  active 
principles  of  his  natural  heart — were  contending  against 
his  skepticism  of  the  head  and  its  evils ;  and  the  sea  of 
his  whole  mind  was  in  commotion.  Thus  it  is  that  when 
we  deliberately  turn  away  from  the  Lord,  and  disregard 
the  better  principles  of  our  heart,  and  let  the  external 
and  selfish  judgment  rule,  we  come  into  great  darkness 
and  distress.  Such  was  Jonah's  mental  condition. 


214  A   WORD  TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS. 

In  this  state  of  mind  he  says,  "  Take  me  up,  and  cast 
me  forth  into  the  sea."  That  is,  the  external  man,  the  nat- 
ural reason,  says  to  the  deeper  and  better  principles,  Let 
me  go  my  own  way — cast  me  into  the  sea ;  I  will  rest  in  my 
own  wisdom  ;  my  own  self-knowledge  is  sufficient  for  me 
— I  know  best.  Thus  the  selfishness  of  the  natural  man 
ruled  ;  the  better  principles  or  remains  gave  up,  and  Jo- 
nah became  immersed  in  the  sea  of  liis  own  false  views. 
In  this  condition,  the  narrative  says,  "The  Lord  had 
prepared  a  great  fish  to  swallow  up  Jonah."  But  the 
Lord  is  often  said,  in  the  "Word,  to  do  what  He  permits, 
only,  to  be  done.  So  the  Lord  permitted  Jonah  to  be 
swallowed  by  the  fish  of  his  own  production  ;  by  his  own 
skepticism.  For  this  great  fish  was  false  science.  It  was 
complete  infidelity.  Jonah  may  be  said  to  have  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  outward  senses  of  man  tell  us  all 
that  we  can  know ;  that  the  Bible  is  a  dark  fable  ;  that 
nature  is  all  there  is ;  and  that  man  ends  his  existence 
with  the  death  of  the  body. 

How  long  a  period  of  time  Jonah  spent,  in  passing 
through  his  changes,  and  embracing  his  infidelity,  we 
know  not.  But  lie  had  come  to  a  most  wretched  spirit- 
ual condition.  And  for  the  want  of  a  true  mental  philos- 
ophy— a  rational  science  of  theology — Low  many  strong 
minds,  within  the  last  century,  have  passed  through  Jo- 
nah's experience,  until  they  found  themselves  engulfed  in 
infidelity ;  in  the  very  belly  of  false,  self-derived  intelli- 
gence. For  theology  has  not  been  looked  upon  as  phil- 
osophical or  rational.  The  reasoning  faculties  of  men 
have  had  but  little  to  do  with  it.  And  yet,  theology  is, 
most  truly,  a  philosophical  science;  the  most  beautiful 
of  all  sciences.  It  is  only  by  the  science  of  theology,  that 
we  can  truly  learn  and  understand  the  science  of  the  Lu- 


A   WORD  TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS.  215 

man  mind.  There  is  no  mental  philosophy  without  it. 
For  that  philosophy  is  based  upon  the  science  of  corre- 
spondences— the  tru6  science  of  all  real  sciences — showing 
the  relation  between  mind  and  matter,  God  and  nature, 
the  soul  and  the  brain,  the  mind  and  the  body.  It  was 
the  want,  therefore,  of  a  rational  knowledge  of  first 
principles,  or  of  God  and  His  laws,  as  revealed  in  His 
Holy  Word,  which  left  the  human  mind  to  wander  in 
the  mazes  of  its  own  wisdom,  till  lost  in  doubt  and  dark- 
ness. "When,  therefore,  we  see  a  man  who  has  not  become 
acquainted  with  the  philosophy  of  theology,  but  who,  by 
the  strength  and  activity  of  his  own  natural  judgment, 
lias  reasoned  himself,  by  a  false,  natural  philosophy,  into 
the  belief  that  there  is  no  life  after  death  ;  that  man  dies 
like  the  brute  ;  or  that  the  Bible  is  the  work  of  cunning 
priests  ;  or  that  there  is  no  God,  but  Nature ;  or  that  man 
is  governed  by  circumstances  and  motives  beyond  his  con- 
trol, and  is  consequently  irresponsible  ; — I  say,  when  we 
see  this,  we  find  a  Jonah  swallowed  by  a  great  fish.  We 
find  a  man  buried  in  the  darkness  of  false  science  ;  in  the 
gloom  of  self-wisdom.  But  we  find,  indeed,  a  wretched 
creature,  with  no  ray  of  hope  before  him ;  nothing  but 
darkness,  and  death,  and  extinction.  He  is  truly  in  the 
midst  of  a  great  fish,  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  of  his  own 
wisdom  ;  with  no  light  of  truth  to  see,  and  no  air  of  heav- 
en to  breathe.  And  we  know  of  no  way  of  escape  from 
this  condition,  but  to  turn,  as  did  Jonah,  to  the  Lord,  and 
pray  out  of  the  depths  of  this  hell.  But,  in  this  age  of 
skepticism — this  age  of  Jonahs,  swallowed  by  great  fish 
— such  men  can  be  reached  and  led  into  this  prayerful 
state,  only  by  the  exercise  of  the  rational  faculty,  in  the 
light  of  the  true  language — the  Divine  Language.  I 
know  of  nothing  else  but  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God's 


216  A   WORD   TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS. 

Holy  Word,  rationally  brought  to  bear  upon  their  minds, 
that  can  possibly  reach  their  case.  But  the  Lord  has  mer- 
cifully provided  for  their  wants,  in  the  spiritual  light  of 
His  Word. 

Now,  it  is  by  no  means  my  object  to  teach,  that  Jonah 
either  was,  or  was  not,  swallowed  by  a  fish.  That  is  a 
matter  that  does  not  concern  us.  God  gives  'us  His 
Word,  essentially,  for  spiritual  teaching.  But  it  is  my 
object  to  show  what  practical  truth  God  would  teach  us, 
by  this  history.  For,  whatever  may  have  been  the  condi- 
tion of  Jonah's  body,  it  is  certain  that  the  spiritual  sense 
of  the  narrative  gives  the  state  of  his  soul ;  and  for  this 
purpose  it  has  been  given  to  man,  that  other  minds  may 
escape  from  infidelity,  who  are  now  in  the  same  condition 
that  Jonah  was.  That  the  history  of  Jonah's  mental  con- 
dition is  here  taught,  we  might  know  from  his  own  lan- 
guage, when  he  says,  "  1  cried  unto  the  Lord  and  He 
heard  me  ;  out  of  the  lelly  of  hell,  I  cried"  Now,  a  nat- 
ural fish  is  not  hell.  Nor  is  false  science  hell,  unless  a 
man  embraces  it,  and  brings  thereby  hell  or  misery  into 
his  soul,  as  did  Jonah. 

Again,  Jonah  says,  "  The  waters  compassed  me  about, 
even  to  the  soul."  Now,  natural  waters  cannot  come  to 
the  soul  of  man.  But  falses,  to  which  waters  correspond, 
can  come  into  his  soul  and  produce  hell  there.  It  is  re- 
markable that,  while  Jonah  is  represented  as  in  the  fish, 
he  makes  no  complaint,  whatever,  about  his  body.  He 
does  not  allude  to  any  physical  wants.  He  mentions  no 
struggles  for  breath,  nor  want  of  light  or  air,  neither  of 
which  he  could  have  had.  But  it  was  his  soul  only,  that 
he  was  troubled  about.  He  says,  "  When  my  soul  faint- 
ed within  me,  I  remembered  the  LORD  :  and  my  prayer 
came  in  unto  Thee,  into  Thine  holy  temple."  And  he  shows 


A   WORD   TO   BIBLICAL   SKEPTICS.  217 

the  former  skepticism  of  his  mind,  when  he  says,  "They 
that  observe  lying  vanities  forsake  their  own  mercy.  .  .  . 
Salvation  is  of  the  Lord"  Thus  it  was  salvation,  not 
physical  life,  that  he  was  now  seeking. 

Again,  he  says,  "  The  earth  with  her  bars  was  about 
me  for  ever  :  yet  hast  thou  brought  up  my  life  from  cor- 
ruption, O  LOKI>,  my  God."  This  Jonah  said,  while  he 
was  still  represented  as  being  in  the  fish.  It  must,  there- 
fore, have  been  the  life  of  his  soul,  which  he  felt  was  being 
brought  up  from  the  corruption  of  sin. 

By  the  fish's  giving  up  Jonah,  is  also  to  be  understood 
Jonah's  giving  up  the  fish.  As  Jonah  gave  up  his  infi- 
delity, his  false  science  gave  up  him,  as  a  matter  of  -course. 
And  it  left  him  on  dry  land  ;  or  with  a  heart  free  from 
the  waters  of  falsehood.  His  external  mind,  of  course, 
was  not  yet  free  from  falses  ;  but  the  internal,  the  heart, 
the  land,  the  new  affection,  was  good,  not  false.  This 
was  good  dry  land.  But  in  order  to  accomplish  this  state, 
he  had  to  be  in  the  belly  of  the  fish  three  days  and  three 
nights  ;  that  is,  he  had  to  pass  from  three  states  of  dark- 
ness, or  nights,  into  three  states  of  light,  or  days,  before 
he  could  come  into  a  state  to  oppose  his  infidelity.  Days, 
in  the  Word,  denote  states  of  mind.  Three  days  or  states 
have  relation  to  first  principles—  Love,  Wisdom,  and 
Power  :  or,  Charity,  Faith,  and  Works.  Before  we  com- 
mence regeneration,  we  are  in  the  night  of  darkness  upon 
all  three  of  these  principles.  Each  one  has  its  night. 
And,  by  regeneration,  we  pass  through  the  night  of  each 
principle,  into  the  Gospel  light  of  day.  And,  by  that 
light,  we  see  that  faith,  charity,  and  works  must  be  united, 
that  each  may  have  life.  Jonah,  therefore,  could  not  be 
placed  in  a  condition  to  become  freed  from  his  skepticism, 
short  of  three  days  and  three  nights  ;  or,  without  coining 
10 


218  A   WORD   TO   BIBLICAL    SKEPTICS. 

into  those  three  states  of  light  from  those  three  states  of 
darkness.  He  must  see  his  duty,  and  see  also  that  he 
must  do  it  and  love  it. 

But  when  Jonah  had  thus  seen  the  true  light  of  faith, 
charity,  and  works  ;  and  had  resolved  to  walk  by  that 
light,  the  Lord  said,  again,  unto  him,  "  Arise,  go  unto 
Nineveh,  that  great  city,  and  preach  unto  it  the  preaching 
that  I  lid  thee"  And  the  narrative  says,  "  So  Jonah 
arose,  and  went  unto  Nineveh,  according  to  the  word  of 
the  LORD."  Jonah  was  now  ready  to  look  his  falses  and 
evils  full  in  the  face,  and  to  fight  against  them.  He  was 
ready  to  go  to  Nineveh.  He  had  now  only  been  brought 
to  his  senses.  He  had  seen  the  light  of  truth,  and  the 
way  of  life  in  which  it  leads ;  and  the  whole  work  of 
purification  was  before  him.  In  his  internal  mind,  a 
good  work  was  commenced,  a  little  kingdom  was  begun. 
But  his  external  mind  still  contained  Nineveh,  that  great 
city,  with  all  its  selfish  inhabitants.  And  it  was  the  busi- 
ness of  his  life  to  subdue  them. 

Let  us,  then,  profit  by  its  instructions.  Let  us  arise 
and  go  to  the  Nineveh  of  our  self-love,  that  great  city,  and 
cry  out  against  every  false  principle  of  the  heart,  as  God, 
in  this  scripture,  bids  us.  So  shall  we  avoid  the  sea  of 
falsehood  and  the  fish  of  skepticism. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND. 

The  Science  of  Correspondences  lost  in  the  building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel, 
and  restored  in  the  loosing  of  the  Seven  Seals  by  the  Lord,  through  EMAN- 

TJEL  SWEDENBORG. 

IN  order  to  understand  the  subject  before  us,  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  all  the  Holy  Word  contains  a  spiritual 
sense,  and  then,  as  we  read  the  narrative  in  the  first  para- 
graph of  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  see  men  build- 
ing a  city  and  a  tower,  in  order  to  make  themselves  a 
name,  lest  they  should  be  scattered  abroad  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth,  we  must  look  into  human  souls  for  the 
real  city  and  tower.  And,  when  we  find  them,  we  shall 
see  that  this  city  and  tower-building  are  precisely  what  all 
unregenerate,  selfish,  ambitious  persons  are  now  doing, 
some  on  a  larger  and  some  on  a  smaller  scale.  For  as  a 
city  denotes  doctrines,  or  rules  and  principles  of  action, 
whether  good  or  bad,  and  tower  denotes  worship  and  de- 
fence of  those  doctrines,  therefore,  every  man  who,  in  his 
self- wisdom  and  worldly  ambition,  sets  out  upon  some 
new  project  or  speculation,  whether  civil  or  religious,  in 
order  to  obtain  wealth,  or  power,  or  distinction,  to  make 
himself  a  name,  that  he  need  not  be  scattered  abroad  over 
the  face  of  the  earth ;  or,  in  other  words,  be  mixed  up 


220  THE   LOST   AND   THE   FOUND. 

and  lost  sight  of  in  the  common  mass ;  every  such  man, 
in  his  new  schemes,  is  striving  to  build  a  city  and  a  tower, 
that  he  may  reach  the  imaginary  heaven  of  his  ambition, 
and  thereby  satisfy  his  selfish  aspirations  to  gain  a  noto- 
riety above  his  fellows. 

And  a  glance  at  the  history  of  mankind,  sacked  and 
profane,  presents  a  vast  variety  of  these  cities  and  towers, 
of  every  character  and  magnitude,  from  the  molehill  to 
the  mountain.  For  every  division  and  discord,  political 
or  moral,  civil  or  religious ;  every  crime,  of  every  hue ; 
all  persecutions  and  abuses  of  the  race,  originate  in  the 
building  of  such  cities  and  towers:  And  God  has  merci- 
fully recorded  the  one  in  Scripture,  as  a  common  mirror, 
into  which  we  may  all  look  and  behold  the  little  cities  of 
self-wisdom,  and  towers  of  pride  and  presumption,  which 
we  have  been  more  or  less  building,  in  various  ways,  in 
our  own  hearts,  and  which  we  can  now  see  to  be  wrong, 
and  may  abandon. 

Now,  in  looking  at  the  city  and  Tower  of  Babel,  in 
this,  their  true  light,  how  much  darkness  is  removed  from 
the  clouds  of  the  literal  sense,  which  seem  to  teach  that 
heaven,  instead  of  being  a  happy  state  of  the  mind,  is 
really  a  natural  place,  up  somewhere  in  the  sky  ;  and  that 
men  believed  they  could  actually  go  there  by  building  a 
tower  to  reach  it ;  and  that  God,  in  order  to  prevent  it, 
came  down  and  confounded  their  language,  so  that  they 
could  not  understand  one  another,  and  thus  He  put  a  stop 
to  the  work.  Besides,  if  they  were  really  intending  to 
build  a  natural  tower  up  into  the  sky,  to  a  place  supposed 
to  be  heaven,  they  surely  would  not  have  commenced  the 
work  in  a  valley  or  plain,  when  they  could  have  saved  the 
expense  of  building  through  much  space,  by  commencing 
on  a  mountain. 


THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND.  221 

But  now,  inasmuch  as  the  light  of  the  Gospel  is  fast 
removing  the  darkness  of  all  such  clouds  of  the  letter  from 
the  atmosphere  of  Christendom,  and  men  of  all  sects  are 
beginning  to  see  and  believe  that  heaven  is  anywhere 
where  angels  are,  and  that  angels  are  everywhere  where 
men  are ;  and  that,  to  find  these  angels  and  this  heaven, 
we  must  become  angelic  and  heavenly  ourselves :  I  say, 
inasmuch  as  this  clear  Gospel  light  is  abroad  in  the  land, 
we  need  give  ourselves  no  anxiety  about  the  literal  sense 
of  Scripture,  which  looks  unintelligible.  For  we  may 
rest  assured  that  every  apparently  dark  and  strange  pas- 
sage is  a  divine  casket,  containing  within  it  precious  jew- 
els of  truth,  to  adorn  the  souls  of  those  who  shall  look  into 
this  casket,  and  find  and  wear  these  jewels. 

Then  let  iis  bless  the  Lord  for  the  literal  sense,  and 
humbly  look  up  through  it,  to  the  clear,  divine  instruction 
offered  for  our  salvation.  The  grand  idea,  then,  to  be 
constantly  and  vividly  kept  before  our  thoughts,  when  we 
come  to  this  Holy  Word  is,  that  it  is  a  history  of  the  hu- 
man mind,  and  a  rule  for  its  guidance  and  development. 
That,  as  a  history,  it  is  perfect,  glancing  upward  for  the 
origin  of  man  to  the  Infinite  form  and  quality  of  human- 
ity in  the  Divine  Being ;  and  then  downward  to  its  finite 
form  and  quality  in  man  :  and  then,  tracing  the  forma- 
tion of  that  mind,  most  minutely,  from  its  first  beginnings 
in  the  finite  form,  onward  to  the  age  in  which  we  now 
live,  and  still  onward  in  eternal  progression,  toward  the 
divine  perfection.  Thus  it  is  a  history  of  man,  for  time 
and  for  eternity ;  a  history  of  the  whole  man,  and  a  whole 
history.  It  is  not  only  a  general  history  of  humanity  as 
a  whole,  but  a  particular  history  of  each  individual ;  so 
that  any  person,  of  whatever  character,  may  read  himself 
in  it.  For  it  paints  minutely  all  the  lights  and  shades, 


222  THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND. 

the  elevations  and  depressions  of  our  mental  being, 
through  all  its  various  changes  and  developments,  from  its 
beginning,  onward.  It  is  a  perfect  history,  because  re- 
corded by  Infinite  Wisdom. 

The  reason  why  it  is  a  history  of  every  individual  is, 
that  every  possible  state  of  human  nature  is  described  in 
it.  Therefore,  no  life  can  be  lived  that  is  not"  entirely 
within  its  descriptions.  But  nobody  can  read  there  the 
peculiar  life  of  an  individual  in  all  its  particulars  but  the 
Allwise  God,  and  the  individual  himself.  As  a  person 
becomes  regenerated,  and  the  "Word  becomes  opened  to 
his  mind,  and  his  mind  to  the  Word,  his  various  states 
and  shades  of  character  are  brought  to  his  view  in  the 
Divine  Records  ;  and  as  he  progresses  he  finds  every  sin, 
every  shade  and  quality  of  his  life  depicted,  and  the  sure 
remedy  for  every  evil  pointed  out. 

But  all  this  history,  we  must  remember,  is  a  history 
of  the  soul ;  a  history  of  the  feelings,  thoughts,  and  inten- 
tions ;  that  the  soul  and  its  wants  and  world  are  the 
things  here  looked  after.  And  the  glorious  epoch,  in  the 
history  of  our  race,  has  now  come  when  finite  humanity 
has  reached  that  stage  in  its  mental  development  which 
calls  for  a  reasonable  knowledge  of  the  soul,  and  of  the 
peculiar  relation  between  mind  and  matter.  Yes,  the 
time  has  arrived  when,  without  this  higher  knowledge, 
humanity  would  soon  perish  in  the  darkness  of  material- 
ism and  the  evils  of  self-love ;  for  the  light  of  Divine 
Revelation  would  be  lost  to  mankind  amid  the  ruins. 

But  our  Heavenly  Father,  whose  Divine  Mercy  is  ever 
ready  to  meet  the  wants  of  every  emergency,  has,  in  this 
inquiring  age,  graciously  offered  us  that  needed  knowl- 
edge in  His  Holy  Word,  through  the  clear  symbols  of 
nature  in  the  sure  Law  of  Analogy.  But  when  men  had 


THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND.  223 

this  law  of  the  Divine  Language  by  intuition,  they  saw 
clearly  the  light  of  the  Law  by  Divine  Influx.  But  they 
saw  it  without  the  full,  independent  exercise  of  their  own 
reason  and  judgment,  and  therefore  they  lost  it.  They 
are  now  to  receive  it  through  the  free  and  open  exercise 
of  their  rational  faculty,  so  that  they  can  thereby  make  it 
a  part  of  their  own  mental  being ;  and  then  they  will 
never  lose  it  again. 

Man  is,  therefore,  now  on  his  intellectual  way  back 
from  the  dark  world  of  effects  to  the  bright  world  of 
causes.  He  left  that  luminous  world  in  the  undeveloped 
childhood  of  the  race,  by  looking  downward  and  outward 
in  his  own  way — as  children  always  do,  to  things  of  time 
and  sense — till  the  clouds  of  his  own  self- wisdom  shut  out 
the  higher  light  from  his  mind.  But  now  he  is  to  return 
to  that  world  of  causes,  in  the  manhood  of  the  race, 
through  the  exercise  of  his  reason ;  looking  upward 
through  the  fogs  of  the  mind,  to  the  inner  world  of  his 
being,  where  the  Lord  is  the  Light  thereof. 

Now,  it  was  the  loss  of  the  symbolic  Light  of  the 
Word,  the  loss  of  the  true  character  of  the  Divine  Lan- 
guage, and  thence  of  the  character  of  God,  which  produced 
the  confusion  of  tongues  at  the  Tower  of  Babel.  When 
they  commenced  the  building  of  this  tower,  there  was  but 
one  language  on  the  earth.  For  the  Lord  said,  "  Behold, 
the  people  is  one,  and  they  have  all  one  language  ;  let  us 
go  down  and  confound  their  language,  that  they  may  not 
understand  one  another's  speech."  Now,  the  Lord  is  said 
to  do  what  He  only  permits  to  be  done.  He  did  not  con- 
found their  language  Himself :  but  He  permitted  them  to 
do  it.  It  was  their  sins  that  did  it.  And  it  was  done  by 
their  building,  in  their  own  minds,  a  false  city  of  base 
principles,  and  a  proud  tower  of  arrogance  and  selfish- 


224:  THE   LOST  AND  THE  FOUND. 

ness.  This  vile  work  created  all  their  diversities  of  views 
and  feelings.  For  now,  they  spoke  no  longer  one  another's 
sentiments  and  wants.  Thus  their  real  life-language 
was  confounded.  For  all  true  human  language  is  the  lan- 
guage of  the  heart.  It  is  what  the  heart  wants,  that  the 
soul  really  speaks.  And  it  speaks  in  looks  and  tones  as 
well  as  in  words  and  actions.  And  when  the  heart  really 
speaks,  no  one,  who  knows  the  soul's  speech,  can  mistake 
its  eloquence  or  its  wants  ;  for  it  speaks  to  every  sympa- 
thizing heart.  But  when  hearts  are  divided  by  selfish, 
ness,  and  diversified  in  taste,  they  speak  different  emo- 
tions or  languages,  according  to  their  various  feelings  and 
wants  ;  and  therefore  they  cannot  work  together  upon  the 
same  mental  tower.  They  do  not  understand  one  an- 
other's speech.  Each  one  wants  his  own  will  and  word 
to  be  law.  Each  wants  the  last  word.  They  will  not  re- 
ceive the  words  of  one  another  as  truth  or  justice.  There  is 
nothing  confuses  the  language  of  the  mind,  in  a  commu- 
nity, like  individual  self-will  in  its  various  members.  Look 
at  a  dozen  men  in  hot  dispute,  and  mark  the  confusion  of 
tongues.  They  do  not  understand  each  other's  speech. 
They  will  not,  because  their  hearts  are  not  prepared 
for  it. 

The  narrative  commences  by  saying,  "  And  the  whole 
earth  was  of  one  language,  and  one  speech.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  as  they  journeyed  from  the  east,  that  they  found 
a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar,  aad  they  dwelt  there." 
Now,  going  from  the  east  is,  in  true  symbolic  language, 
going  away  from  the  Lord,  from  light,  from  life,  from 
love,  from  heaven.  And  dwelling  in  a  plain,  away. from 
the  Lord,  would  denote  .a  low,  selfish  state  of  mind.  And 
here,  in  this  low  mental  condition,  they  built  that  famous 
city  and  tower,  which,  have  filled  the  world  with  opposing 


THE   LOST   AND   THE   FOUND. 

sects  and  parties,  anger  and  ill  will,  sin  and  suffering. 
Here  was  lost  the  one  universal  language — the  language 
of  pure  symbols — the  language  of  the  Holy  Word — the 
language  of  the  heart.  Before  this,  the  whole  earth  was 
of  one  speech.  The  mental  earth  spoke  from  the  heart. 
The  minds  of  the  community  were  one.  Love  was  the 
golden  bond  which  harmonized  the  thoughts  and  feelings, 
and  made  their  words  one.  Their  words  were  a  perfect 
index  to  the  feelings  which  gave  them  forth.  And  they 
saw,  in  the  sure  light  of  analogy,  the  indisputable  mean- 
ing of  every  utterance  of  the  soul.  For  the  divine  lan- 
guage of  the  heart  wears  no  disguise.  It  knows  no  decep- 
tion. It  is  pure  symbol.  Throughout  all  nature  it  never 
lies.  Fallen  man  only,  of  all  the  creatures  of  God,  says 
one  thing  and  feels  another.  Only  man's  language  is  con- 
founded, and  that,  by  the  Tower  of  Babel  in  his  soul.  All 
other  creatures  perfectly  understand  one  another's  speech. 
There  is  no  falsity  nor  equivocation  there.  "Wicked  man 
is  the  arch-deceiver. 

Now,  it  would  seem  from  the  general  history,  that  this 
city  and  tower  were  not  commenced  until  after  the  time 
of  the  flood,  and  by  the  descendants  of  Noah ;  but  the 
spiritual  history  is  above  time,  reaching  the  states  of  men 
in  all  ages.  Preparations  for  the  building  of  this  tower 
commenced  with  the  commencement  of  the  fall,  and  the 
first  false,  selfish  principle,  received  into  the  human  heart, 
was  the  first  brick  laid.  And,  therefore,  our  subject  em- 
braces the  great  theme  of  the  fall  of  man  and  its  conse- 
quences. As  we  stand  aloof  in  silent  contemplation,  sur- 
veying the  awful  magnitude  and  consequences  of  this  sub- 
ject, it  points  us  back  to  the  calm  and  genial  sphere  of 
Paradisiacal  days,  where  the  imagination  beholds  the 
mental  world,  in  its  primeval  b.eauty  and  innocence ; 
10* 


226  THE    LOST   AND   THE   FOUND. 

where  all  was  harmony  within,  and  brightness  without, 
and  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  of  one 
speech ;  when  pure  affection  was  sweetly  manifest  in 
every  look,  and  tone,  and  act ;  when  men's  hearts  were 
one  and  their  speech  one. 

In  passing  the  eyes  along  the  brighter  portion  of  this 
mingled  picture,  we  next  behold  this  happy  people  leav- 
ing their  halcyon  Paradise,  their  heavenly  groves  and 
sunny  climes,  to  take  a  journey  away  from  the  glorious 
East,  from  whence  had  come  all  their  joys.  Yes :  we 
behold  them  turning  their  backs  to  the  light,  the  life,  the 
joy,  the  heaven,  the  God  and  Father  of  all  their  blessings. 
For  their  own  selfhood  is  now  beginning  to  feel  its  im- 
portance, and  to  become  active.  New  things  are  exciting 
their  curiosity,  and  new  experiments  must  be  tried.  And 
as  they  journeyed  on  in  their  selfish  way,  we  follow  them 
along  their  devious  paths,  down  from  the  sunny  hillsides 
of  truth  and  love,  where  the  fruits  of  righteousness  and 
peace  grow  spontaneously  on  all  the  trees  of  the  garden, 
except  that  of  their  own  self-knowledge ;  and  now  we 
come  to  the  gloomy  plain  of  error  and  unldndness,  where 
they  feed  upon  the  bitter  fruits  of  their  own  depraved 
devices.  And  here,  in  this  low,  dark,  selfish  valley,  they 
built  that  city  of  falsities  and  tower  of  arrogance  which 
have  spread  consternation,  distress,  and  woe  over  the 
whole  face  of  the  earth. 

From  the  brief  account,  given  in  the  Word,  of  this 
journey  and  tower-building,  one  would  suppose  it  was  all 
accomplished  in  a  short  time ;  at  least,  within  the  com- 
mon age  of  man.  And  yet,  it  must  have  taken  thousands 
of  years — many  generations.  For  slow  must  be  the 
progress,  whereby  a  pure  and  spotless  people  could  be- 
come evil  and  false,  so.  as  entirely  to  lose  sight  of  the  true 


THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND.  227 

law  of  the  heart  and  light  of  the  mind ;  and  thus  become 
blind  to  the  symbolic  language  of  the  universe,  in  which 
they  were  educated — that  beautiful  analogical  relation  of 
cause  and  effect,  which  ever  exists  between  the  world  of 
mind  and  the  world  of  matter — their  own  and  only  native 
language.  But  such  is  the  wonderful  character  of  the 
Holy  Word,  that  one  divine  idea  grasps  the  whole ;  for 
even  the  parts  are  infinite. 

Let  us  then  come  to  the  Holy  Word,  for  a  true  knowl- 
edge of  humanity  in  the  present  age  of  the  world,  the  age 
which  most  of  all  concerns  us.  And  let  us  study  it  from 
the  heart.  For  this  is,  indeed,  an  age  of  Babylonian 
cities  and  towers.  Every  sinful  heart  has  its  Babel,  and 
every  wicked  people,  their  base  city  and  tower.  There  is 
now  no  civil  or  religious  government  on  the  earth,  that  is 
entirely  free  from  that  diabolical  city  and  tower,  built  in 
the  land  of  Shinar.  But  although  we  behold  these  false 
cities  and  gigantic  towers  all  over  the  world,  and  see 
poor  humanity  writhing  under  the  pain  and  anguish  of 
dominant  cruelty ;  yet,  let  us  take  courage,  for  the  remedy 
is  also  at  hand,  and  the  promise  of  a  glorious  age  to  come 
is  bright.  Pure  symbolic  light,  from  the  Holy  Word,  is 
now  freely  offered  us,  whereby  we  can  rationally  test  the 
character  of  all  cities  and  towers ;  and,  in  the  divine 
power  of  this  light,  we  can  abandon  the  cities  of  the  plains 
and  flee  to  the  mountains.  We  can  come  back  to  the 
Paradise  of  God,  and  feast  our  souls  upon  the  Tree  of  Life. 
All  the  gates  of  the  heavenly  garden  are  thrown  open  for 
our  reception.  The  various  flowers  give  forth  their  odors, 
and  the  breath  of  the  morning  comes  laden  with  love. 
Angelic  arms  are  open  to  receive  us,  and  heavenly  choirs 
will  chant  praises  to  God.  Let  us  then  build  no  cities  nor 
towers  ourselves,  nor  accept  any  of  man's  building.  But 


228  THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND. 

let  us  freely  enter  the  Divine  City  wliich  cometh  down 
from  God  out  of  heaven ;  whose  builder  and  maker  is 
God  :  where  grows  the  Tree  of  Life,  whose  leaves  never 
fade,  and  whose  fruits  never  decay.  Then  shall  we  be 
able  truly  to  "praise  the  Lord  for  His  goodness,  and  for 
His  wonderful  works  to  the  children  of  men." 

Now,  since  the  loss  of  this  science,  the  church  and  the 
world  have  passed  through  many  changes  ;  until  the  time 
has  come  for  the  absolute  necessity  for  ja  knowledge  of  this 
science,  for  the  continuance  and  salvation  of  the  human 
family  on  earth.  And  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  it 
has  been  revealed  is  this : — The  time  had  come,  in  the 
age  of  the  world,  when  human  nature  had  grown  up  to 
natural  manhood  ;  when  the  natural  faculties  and  powers 
of  reasoning  were  greatly  developed  ;  and  when  the  reli- 
gion of  the  world  was  of  every  caste  and  character,  and 
involved  in  great  mystery.  Nothing  in  theology  reached 
the  wants  of  the  free,  reasoning,  thinking,  truth-desiring 
minds.  They  were  asking  for  light  in  matters  of  religion, 
as  well  as  in  science.  They  were  hungering  and  thirsting 
for  something  to  satisfy  the  wants  of  the  longing  soul. 
These  minds  could  begin  to  receive  the  spiritual  sense  of 
the  Word,  if  it  could  only  be  brought  scientifically  before 
them.  This  sense  was  the  only  thing  that  could  lead 
their  thoughts  to  the  true  God,  give  them  right  views  of 
His  nature,  and  faith  in  His  Holy  "Word.  The  lost  science 
of  correspondences  was  the  only  key  to  that  spiritual  sense 
that  would  fit  their  minds.  If  that  science  could  be 
brought  rationally  before  the  minds  of  men,  so  as  to  en- 
able them,  from  their  low,  natural  position,  to  look  un- 
derstandingly  up  through  the  world  of  eifects  to  the  world 
of  causes — through  natural  things  to  spiritual,  material  to 
mental — so  as  to  see  and  receive  spiritual  light  from  the 


THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND.  229 

Holy  Word,  then  the  human  race  on  earth  could  be  grad- 
ually elevated  to  heavenly  order  and  happiness  ;  otherwise 
man  must  perish.  "  Except  these  days  should  be  short- 
ened, no  flesh  should  be  saved." 

By  the  use,  then,  of  the  key  of  correspondences,  the 
seals  of  the  Word  could  be  broken  and  the  Book  opened. 
But  who  was  able  to  do  it  ?  None  but  the  "  Lion  of  the 
tribe  of  Judah  could  prevail  to  open  the  Book,  and  loose 
the  seals  thereof."  The  seals  were  all  in  the  human 
mind.  It  was  sealed  with  seven  seals  ;  that  is,  every  state 
of  the  human  mind  was  closed  against  spiritual  light. 
Man  was  altogether  natural.  But  there  were  some  minds 
in  a  religious  state  of  natural  good,  and  in  such  a  state 
of  natural  rational  freedom  as  to  have  their  minds  opened 
by  instruction  from  the  Lord,  so.  as  to  see  spiritual  light 
through  natural  symbols,  could  they  be  so  instructed. 

But  how  was  this  mighty  work  to  be  done  ?  How 
was  the  human  mind  to  be  opened  and  instructed,  so  as  to 
behold  the  wonderful  things  written  in  God's  law  ;  to  see 
the  glory  of  the  world  of  causes,  and  to  look  down  upon 
effects,  and  see  them  as  they  really  are  ?  There  was  but 
one  way  to  do  it ;  and  that  was,  for  a  man  to  take  the 
Holy  Word,  give  it  his  supreme  time  and  attention,  arid 
work  out  its  wonderful  problems  step  by  step ;  proving 
every  operation,  as  he  went  along,  by  the  truths  of  the 
Word  itself,  looking  to  the  Divine  Master  for  instruction. 
Thus,  the  mind,  in  this  new  study,  would  have  to  be  as 
gradually  opened,  enlightened,  and  expanded,  in  spiritual 
science,  as  minds  are  naturally  in  the  pursuit  of  natural 
science. 

But  a  mind,  to  do  this  work,  must  be  a  mind  in  a  state 
of  strong  natural  truth  and  good.  It  must  be  a  mind 
possessing  rational  and  unwavering  faith  in  the  Lord,  in 


230  THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND. 

the  divinity  of  the  Word,  and  in  the  work  before  him ; 
a  mind  humble,  prayerful,  open,  and  confiding  toward 
the  Lord.  But  where  was  the  mind  to  be  found  compe- 
tent to  the  task  of  going  to  this  Fountain  of  wisdom, 
working  out  its  spiritual  problems,  and  spreading  out 
before  the  world  a  clear  and  satisfactory  solution  of  the 
work,  proved  and  authenticated  by  the  Divine  Truth 
itself? 

EMANTJEL  SWEDENBORG  was  the  .man,  in  the  Divine 
Providence,  for  this  work.  But  what  peculiar  qualifica- 
tions had  he  for  entering  upon  a  study  so  high  and 
heavenly  ?  From  his  youth,  his  training  and  education 
had  prepared  his  mind  for  just  such  a  work.  With  al- 
ways a  conscientious  regard  for  the  Bible,  and  a  love  of 
truth  and  virtue,  he  had  mastered  all  the  human  litera- 
ture of  the  age  ;  deeply  investigated  the  laws  of  matter 
in  the  mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  kingdoms ;  had 
traced  the  economy  of  the  human  body  up  to  the  soul, 
and  nature  up  to  God  ;  and  had  rationally  seen  something 
of  the  relation  between  mind  and  matter,  and  of  the  laws 
of  creation.  In  this  way,  his  natural  mind  had  become 
a  sincere  and  open  vessel,  adapted  to  the  reception  of 
spiritual  truth  ;  and  his  active  soul  was  thirsting  for  some- 
thing higher,  and  looking  up  to  receive  it.  And  thus,  at 
the  mature  age  of  fifty-five  years — ripe  in  natural  goodness 
and  truth,  and  in  scientific  and  literary  wisdom — he  was 
prepared  to  enter  upon  the  divine  study  of  the  Holy 
Word  in  its  spiritual  sense. 

This  study  rationally  opened  his  mind  to  the  laws  of 
the  spiritual  world ;  so  that  he  gradually  came,  while  in 
the  flesh,  into  a  state  of  free,  open,  and  sensible  conscious- 
ness of  spiritual  society  and  scenery,  and  this  by  a  process 
of  such  perfect  mental  growth  and  development,  accord- 


THE  LOST  AND  THE  FOUND.  231 

ing  to  divine  order,  that,  when  his  spiritual  senses  had 
become  clearly  opened  to  the  spiritual  world,  they  were 
permanently  so  ;  because  his  views  of  that  world  were 
not  surface  and  uncertain  views,  presented  from  a  disor- 
dered or  inflated  imagination,  but  they  were  scientific 
views.  He  saw  and  understood  the  law  by  which  spirit- 
ual forms  are  manifested,  and  this  law  he  found  in  the 
Holy  Word.  It  is  the  SCIENCE  OF  CORRESPONDENCES,  in 
which  the  Word  is  written,  and  which  he  labored  to  make 
known  to  the  world ;  and,  in  the  ardent  exercise  of  this 
benevolent  desire  to  give  it  freely  to  his  fellow  man,  his 
soul  was  rationally  opened  to  receive  it  from  the  Lord. 

Twenty-nine  years  of  intense  application  were  devoted 
to  this  work,  in  which  he  presented  to  mankind  twenty 
massive  volumes,  opening  and  expounding  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  and  specifically  recording  his  illustrations,  and 
the  science  of  correspondences  by  which  they  are  ex- 
plained. This  he  did  in  the  most  modest  and  quiet  man- 
ner, without  any  startling  miracles,  or  outward  displays 
of  power,  but  in  a  deep,  calm,  and  contemplative  state  of 
mind ;  looking  prayerfully  and  confidingly  to  the  Lord 
while  reading  the  Word. 

In  this  way,  the  science  of  correspondences,  and  the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  Word,  and  its  doctrines,  have  been 
presented  to  the  world.  But  who  has  done  it  ?  Certainly 
not  Swedenborg,  but  the  Lord  Himself.  Swedenborg 
never,  in  all  these  volumes,  gives  us  so  much  as  a  single 
opinion  of  his  own  upon  the  meaning  of  the  Word  or  its 
doctrines,  or  of  the  science  of  correspondences ;  but  the 
illustrations  are  so  given  as  to  make  the  Word  itself  its 
own  interpreter.  It  is  the  Lord,  therefore,  and  not  Swe- 
denborg, that  speaks  to  the  heart  and  the  head  of  the 
reader  of  these  volumes.  Yet  Swedenborg  was  not  in- 


232  THE   LOST   AND   THE   FOUND. 

spired.  He  acted  not  as  an  amanuensis,  as  did  the 
prophets.  He  freely  saw  and  understood  what  he  wrote. 
He  knew  it  was  true  ;  but  he  knew,  also,  that  it  was  not 
one  particle  of  it  his  own  wisdom  ;  and  he  was  far  from 
claiming  it. 

These  twenty  volumes,  therefore,  in  their  explanations 
of  the  Word  and  its  doctrines,  become  to  the  understand- 
ing reader,  positive  and  conclusive  evidence  of  their  own 
truth  and  the  truth  of  the  Holy  Word.  They  call  in  an 
array  of  testimony,  which  carries  everything  before  it. 
They  call  our  own  internal  selves  on  to  the  stand,  with  all 
our  evils,  and  all  we  know  of  human  nature  and  make 
them  cry  out,  Amen  !  They  call  in  to  their  support  all 
the  truths  of  science  and  art.  Indeed,  they  call  in  every- 
thing— the  vast  universe  of  mind  and  matter,  and  the  law 
of  analogy  between  them.  Everything  in  nature,  from 
the  smallest  dust  of  the  earth  to  the  sun  in  the  heavens, 
bears  testimony  in  these  volumes  to  the  truth  of  the 
Word,  and  the  divinity  of  its  Author  ;  proving  beyond  a 
doubt,  that  the  Creator  of  the  universe  is  the  Author  of 
the  Holy  Word  ; ,  that  the  spiritual  truths  of  the  Word 
are  the  Divine  Wisdom  by  which  God  created  and  sus- 
tains the  universe  ;  and  that  the  universe  now  stands  in 
relation  to  that  wisdom,  as  effects  to  causes.  All  this  is 
satisfactorily  proved  by  the  law  of  analogy  which  pervades 
the  whole  Word. 

Thus  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  according  to 
prophecy,  has  prevailed  to  open  the  Book,  and  loose  the 
seven  seals  of  God's  Holy  Word ;  and  has  mercifully 
given  to  the  world  the  divine  science  of  correspondences 
— the  grand  key  which  opens  the  door  to  that  fountain 
of  wisdom  which  is  to  bring  the  world  into  order. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

BOOKS  OF  THE  BIBLE,  WITH  OR  WITHOUT  A  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

BY  the  science  of  correspondences  men  are  enabled  to 
ascertain  what  writings  have  an  internal  sense,  and  what 
have  not ;  what  are  of  God,  and  what  .are  of  men  :  which 
books  of  what  is  called  the  "JBible,  containing  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments"  are  plenarily  inspired,  and  which 
are  not. 

The  analytical  investigation  of  languages,  by  this  sci- 
ence, is  exceedingly  interesting,  ever  pointing,  as  with 
the  finger  of  God,  to  the  marked  distinction  between 
what  is  Divine  and  what  is  human,  and  thereby  bringing 
out  the  Holy  Word  in  bold  relief,  in  its  essential  superi- 
ority over  all  other  writings,  because  filled  with  living 
thoughts  and  feelings,  evolving  throughout  a  new  and 
consecutive  sense,  far  above  the  letter,  breathing  a  Di- 
vine spirit  expressive  of  a  peculiar  relation  to  human 
souls,  touching  their  understandings  and  wills,  and  plainly 
directing  their  actions  ;  each  part  of  the  Word  evincing  a 
sensible  connection  with  all  the  other  parts,  and  even,  by 
correspondences,  with  all  the  things  of  nature.  Such  is 
this  wonderful  book  of  God :  whereas  the  same  analysis, 
applied  to  any  merely  human  composition,  fails  in  all 
these  particulars.  ; 


234  THE   BOOKS   OF   THE   BIBLE. 

A  language  having  only  a  natural  sense  gives,  at  once 
and  fully,  to  any  mind  which  understands  the  terms  used 
and  the  grammar,  all  the  ideas  it  contains ;  and  any  at- 
tempt to  evolve  an  internal  sense  fails  at  every  step.  For, 
notwithstanding  every  natural  thing  mentioned,  even  in 
such  language,  corresponds  to  some  spiritual  thing,  yet, 
as  the  other  parts  of  the  sentence  are  not  arranged  in  re- 
lation to  this  correspondence,  there  can  be  no  spiritual 
sense.  This  any  one  who  examines  the  subject  may  see. 
And  what  in  the  Holy  Word  is  most  wonderful  is,  every 
part  seems  to  involve  all  the  rest,  because  it  contains  the 
Lord,  who  is  perfect  in  the  least  things  as  well  as  the 
greatest ;  so  that  there  is  no  part,  however  intricate  or 
obscure,  that  is  not  rendered  by  the  spiritual  sense  profit- 
able for  doctrine,  reproof,  correction,  and  instruction  in 
righteousness. 

In  the  general  features  of  correspondences,  the  science 
appears  plain,  but  in  extending  it  to  the  particulars  of  the 
Word,  men  have  thought  it  too  obscure.  But  they  should 
know  that  in  looking,  by  analogy,  into  the  interiors  of  the 
Word,  in  their  minute  particulars,  the  science  of  corre- 
spondences becomes,  as  it  were,  a  spiritual  microscope, 
bringing  out,  in  their  perfect  order  and  beauty,  thousands 
of  otherwise  hidden  features  and  qualities  of  things,  with 
their  various  relations  and  uses :  the  lens  (permit  the 
term)  of  this  Divine  instrument  becoming  more  and  more 
powerful  as  we  progress  in  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
spiritual  qualities  and  powers  of  the  Word,  and  as  our  men- 
tal vision  becomes  adapted  to  the  new  light.  For,  as  the 
constant  improvement  in  the  natural  microscope  is  bring- 
ing out  more  and  more,  to  the  astonished  beholder,  the 
perfect  order  and  organization  of  the  infinitesimal  things 
in  the  interior  of  God's  works,  leaving  the  imagination 


THE   BOOKS   OF  THE   BIBLE.  235 

yet  room  to  play  amid  unseen  wonders,  which  may  lie 
still  deeper  within  ;  so,  as  we  progress  in  a  knowledge  of 
the  science  of  correspondences,  and  look,  by  Divine  light, 
through  its  increasing  powers,  into  God's  Word,  we  find 
the  same  cause  for  wonder  and  delight  at  its  order  and 
perfection  in  the  infinite  and  minute  varieties,  relations, 
and  combinations  of  its  goods  and  truths,  leaving  us  still 
ignorant  of  the  extent  and  quality  of  the  unseen  glories 
yet  remaining. 

For,  as  the  science  of  correspondences  shows  the  rela- 
tion between  God's  works  and  His  Word,  so  these  two 
great  productions  must,  in  their  degrees,  be  alike  perfect 
in  their  interiors  ;  both  speaking  of  the  goodness  and  per- 
fection of  their  Infinite  Author  in  sure  and  responsive 
words,  expressing  His  goodness  in  accents  loud  upon  the 
surface,  but  becoming  more  and  more  gentle  from  within, 
till  finally  lost  in  the  whispers  of  their  own  sweetness,  as 
we  lose  sight  of  the  interior  excellences  of  the  Word  in 
the  infinity  of  its  perfections.  No  one,  therefore,  with  a 
glimpse  of  the  law  of  analogy,  can  doubt  the  complete 
distinction  between  the  written  Word  of  the  Lord  and  all 
other  languages. 

Now  the  Pentateuch,  and  the  book  of  Joshua,  and 
that  of  Judges,  are  written  according  to  the  science  of 
correspondences,  and  therefore  have  a  complete  spiritual 
sense.  And  they  all  purport  to  come  from  God.  He 
speaks  in  them,  and  they  are  His  Word. 

But  the  book  of  Ruth  has  no  spiritual  sense,  and  the 
science  of  correspondences  cannot  be  applied  to  it.  Nei- 
ther does  the  book  anywhere  claim  to  be  spoken  or  di- 
rected by  the  Lord.  He  nowhere  utters  a  syllable  in  it. 

The  two  books  of  Samuel  and  the  two  books  of  Kings, 
are  the  Word  of  life,  everywhere  containing  a  spiritual 


236  THE   BOOKS   OF  THE   BIBLE. 

sense.  God  speaks  in  them,  and  the  science  of  correspond- 
ences and  their  holy  sphere  prove  their  divinity. 

The  two  books  of  Chronicles  cannot  be  read  by  corre- 
spondences, and  are,  therefore,  not  spirit  and  life  like  the 
Word.  They  are  merely  what  their  name  indicates — 
chronicles.  God  nowhere  claims  them,  nor  do  the  books 
themselves  claim  Him  as  their  author.  In  what  they  say 
of  David  th^y  quote  one  of  the  Psalms,  which,  with  any 
other  quotations  from  the  Word,  has  an  internal  sense. 
The  Chronicles,  with  the  book  of  Kuth,  'are  a.  mere  record 
of  natural  events  ;  and  as -such  they  often  speak  of  what 
God  has  said  and  done.  But  God's  spirit  is  not  manifest 
in  these  books,  speaking  and  directing  present  and  future 
tilings  ;  telling  men  how  to  speak,  write,  and  act,  as  in 
the  other  books. 

The  books  of  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  Esther  are  of  a 
similar  character  to  Kuth  and  Chronicles,  having  no  spir- 
itual sense.  God  has  neither  credit  for  them,  nor  does 
He  directly  speak  in  them,  or  call  them  His  Word. 

The  book  of  Job  is  a  work  by  itself.  It  is  of  a  higher 
order  and  character  of  language  than  those  without  an 
internal  sense  ;  for  it  is  written  in  correspondences.  But 
it  is  not  of  so  high  a  character  as  the  Word  of  God,  be- 
cause it  does  not  everywhere  refer  to  the  Lord  and  con- 
tain His  spirit.  But  it  treats  of  spiritual  things  through 
natural  symbols. 

The  Psalms  are  a  peculiarly  sublime  book.  They 
contain  a  spiritual  sense,  and  God's  Spirit  breathes  in 
them  throughout.  Some  of  the  literal  sense  is  very  beau- 
tiful, and  some  appears  harsh  and  unmerciful.  But  in 
the  light  of  correspondences,  the  letter  entire  becomes  a 
beautiful  casket  of  precious  mental  jewels.  David  is 
everywhere  in  them  a  representative  character  denoting 


THE   BOOKS    OF   THE   BIBLE.  237 

the  Lord.  Not  that  David  was  personally  a  good  man. 
He  was  far  from  it.  But  the  Psalms  have  a  peculiar  pro- 
phetic spirit,  taking  as  a  basis  a  certain  character  repre- 
senting the  Lord,  who  is  called  David.  And  this  char- 
acter is  represented  as  passing  through  everything  which 
the  Lord's  assumed  nature  passed  through  in  its  life, 
temptations,  crucifixion,  and  glorification ;  and  also 
everything  which  men  pass  through  in  their  regenera- 
tion ;  and  also  all  the  abuse  which  the  Word,  or  -  the 
truth,  received  from  the  Jews,  or  receives  now  from  any 
one  who  rejects  it.  Thus  David  is  said  to  say  in  them, 
"  All  they  that  see  me  laugh  me  to  scorn  :  they  shoot  out 
the  lip,  they  shake  the  head,  saying,  He  trusted  on  the 
Lord  that  He  would  deliver  him :  let  Him  deliver  him, 
seeing  He  delighted  in  him."  "  They  pierced  my  hands 
and  my  feet."  "  They  parted  my  garments  among  them, 
and  cast  lots  upon  my  vesture."  (Psalm  xxii,  Y,  8,  16,  18.) 
Here,  because  David  represents  the  Lord,  the  things 
which  were  long  afterward  done  to  the  Lord  were  said 
to  be  done  to  David.  Now  herein  is  a  true  spiritual 
sense,  and  the  literal  sense  is  a  true  symbol  of  it ;  and 
this  is  all  the  soul  needs  to  know.  "Whatever  occurred  to 
^David's  natural  body  is  of  no  consequence  to  us.  In  the 
spiritual  sense  it  is  a  highly  beautiful  work ;  very  devo- 
tional, instructive,  and  refreshing  to  the  soul.  By  the 
enemies  so  much  denounced,  threatened,  and  hated  there- 
in, are  always  meant  evils,  not  persons.  And  whoever 
will  read  the  Psalms,  and  put  the  Lord,  in  His  assumed 
humanity,  in  the  place  of  David,  will  see  much  beauty  in 
them  which  he  could  not  otherwise  see.  But  to  see  them  • 
in  their  perfection  and  glory,  he  must  behold  the  spiritual 
sense.  Then  will  his  soul,  rejoicing,  bless  the  Lord. 

The  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  Song  of  Solomon 
have  no  spiritual  sense. 


238  THE   BOOKS    OF    THE    BIBLE. 

The  Proverbs  are  what  they  declare  themselves  to  be, 
"  The  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  the  son  of  David,  king  of 
Israel."  Thus  Solomon  claims  them  as  his  own,  and  nei- 
ther the  Lord  nor  any  one  else  says  anything  to  the  con- 
trary. 

Ecclesiastes  is  declared  to  be  "  The  words  of  the 
Preacher,  the  son  of  David,  king  of  Jerusalem."  Tims 
this  book  does  not  claim  to  be  the  Word  of  God,  nor  does 
God  say  it  is  His  Word. 

The  Song  of  Solomon  commences  by  saying,  "The 
Song  of  Songs,  which  is  Solomon's."  It  is  a  highly 
figurative  book,  but  not  in  correspondences.  In  these 
three  books  by  Solomon,  God  utters  not  one  syllable. 
Indeed,  in  the  last,  God's  name  is  not  even  mentioned  or 
alluded  to. 

The  prophecies  from  Isaiah  to  Malachi,  inclusive,  have 
all  a  spiritual  sense.  God  is  everywhere  speaking  in 
them,  and  the  writers  constantly  declare  them  to  be  "  the 
Word  of  the  Lord,"  which  came  to  them,  "  saying." 

In  the  New  Testament,  the  four  Gospels  and  the  Rev- 
elation have  the  spiritual  sense.  The  Acts  and  the  Epis- 
tles have  not.  In  the  Gospels  and  the  Eevelation  the 
Lord  is  ever  present  in  word  and  in  spirit.  The  Revela- 
tion commences  by  saying,  "  The  Revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ." 

The  Acts  are  simply  what  they  are  declared  to  be, 
"  The  Acts  of  the  Apos&ea."  And  so  of  the  Epistles. 
They  are  entitled,  The  Epistles  of  Paul,  James,  Peter, 
John,  and  Jude.  They  are  not  the  Gospel,  but  explana- 
tions and  instructions  concerning  the  Gospel :  nor  do  the 
apostles  teach  that  these  Acts  and  Epistles  are  God's  acts 
and  epistles.  They  are  highly  valuable  writings,  and  the 
writers  were  devoted  and  godly  men,  chosen  of  the  Lord 


THE   BOOKS   OF  THE  BIBLE.  239 

to  teach  and  preach  the  everlasting  Gospel  which  He  had 
given  them. 

Now  it  is  remarkable  that  no  books  of  the  Bible,  ex- 
cept those  in  which  God  speaks,  and  which  the  writers 
acknowledge  to  be  from  Him,  contain  a  spiritual  sense. 
Indeed,  the  books  seem  to  tell  us  in  the  very  letter,  upon 
their  very  face,  which  ar,e  God-breathed  and  which  are 
not.  But  men  had  not  noticed  this  distinction,  and  also 
the  wonderful  difference  in  their  character,  and  the  struc- 
ture of  the  language,  till  they  saw  the  spiritual  sense. 
By  this  chapter  we  may  be  thought  by  some  to  be  treat- 
ing some  of  the  books  of  the  Bible  lightly,  because  we 
declare  them  to  be  without  a-  spiritual  sense  ;  yet  let  such 
persons  remember  that  we  place  as  high  a  value  upon 
those  books  as  they  do  upon  any  part ;  while  we  esteem 
the  other  portions  to  be  infinitely  more  valuable. 

"We  are  now  able  to  see  why  the  first  and  last  parts 
of  the  Holy  Word — the  fore  part  of  Genesis  and  the 
Apocalypse — are  so  wonderfully  obscure.  It  is  because 
they  belong  to  states  of  human  life  on  earth  which  have 
passed  away,  and  which  have  not  yet  returned.  But  the 
day  is  coming  when  those  Scriptures  will  be  brilliant  with 
heavenly  light,  and  all  the  Holy  Word  will  speak  one 
voice,  and  that,  the  voice  of  mercy  and  peace. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  CHURCH. 

THE  church  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  Its  elements 
are  goodness  and  truth.  It  cometh  not  with  observation ; 
neither  is  it  here,  nor  there,  as  to  space,  but  within  the 
souls  of  men.  It  is  a  spiritual  kingdom.  The  Lord  is 
the  King,  and  the  commandments — the  golden  rules  of 
life — are  the  laws  of  the  realm.  The  establishment  of 
this  church  is  the  creation  of  man.  For  the  elements  of 
the  church,  in  man,  are  what  make  him  a  man.  The 
church,  therefore,  is  a  human,  mind  or  a  society  of  minds 
in  true  order. 

Now,  the  Holy  Word  is  a  complete  history  of  man  or 
of  the  church ;  describing  all  its  lights  and  shades,  from 
its  infancy  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  to  its  full  age  in  the 
millennium.  All  the  things  of  nature,  and  their  apparent 
histories,  are  mentioned  in  the  "Word  to  teach  these  spirit- 
ual things.  They  symbolize  and  set  forth,  by  analogy, 
the  mind  of  man,  or  the  church,  and  its  history.  Conse- 
quently, whether  we  say  man  or  the  church,  it  spiritually 
means  the  same  thing.  For  goodness  and  truth  make 
us  men  by  giving  us  the  image  and  likeness  of  God — the 
Infinite  Man.  In  losing  goodness  and  truth,  therefore, 


THE   CHURCH.  241 

we  .cease  to  be  either  men  or  the  church,  and  are  said  to 
be  destroyed  or  dead  in  sin.  It  is  goodness  and  truth 
which  God  gives  man,  when  He  'breathes  into  him  the 
breath  of  lives,  and  man  becomes  a  living  soul.  For  the 
breath  which  He  breathes  into  him  is  the  Holy  Spirit — 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  and  Love.  Man  receives  this  good- 
ness and  truth  in  his  spiritual  creation  or  regeneration. 
These  divine  elements  are  contained  in  the  words  of  the 
Lord,  which  He  declares  are  spirit  and  life.  They  are 
received  into  the  will  and  understanding  of  man  as  he 
sees  the  truth,  yields  his  heart  to  the  laws  of  God,  through 
faith  and  repentance,  and  obeys  those  laws  till  he  loves 
them.  This,  and  nothing  else,  makes  him  a  man  and  a 
portion  of  the  church  of  God. 

Now,  by  the  creation  of  man,  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  is  meant  the  creation  of  the  race — mankind — 
males  and  females.  And  as  the  Holy  Word  is  a  manifes- 
tation and  description  of  the  elements  and  qualities  of 
God,  and  a  history,  past,  present,  and  prophetic,  of  the 
church  or  the  human  mind  or  soul,  and  its  qualities,  given 
through  natural  symbols ;  so  it  commences  with  the  his- 
tory of  this  mental  creation — this  spiritual  humanity. 
And  as  all  language  is  taken  from  the  things  of  nature, 
there  being  "  no  speech  nor  language  where  their  voice 
is  not  heard,"  and  as  no  quality  of  the  mind  can  be  de- 
scribed, but  through  natural  things,  by  correspondences ; 
and  as  the  human  mind  is  a  microcosm,  to  which  the 
macrocosm  corresponds ;  so  the  creation  of  the  human 
mind,  or  mental  universe,  is  described  by  an  apparent 
history  of  the  creation  of  the  natural  universe.  This  his- 
tory is  so  composed  as  beautifully  and  rationally  to  de- 
scribe this  creation.  And  whether  it  gives  also  a  real 
history  of  the  creation  of  material  things  or  not,  is  in  no 
11 


242  THE    CHURCH . 

way  essential  to  us.  We  cannot  understand  it  if  it  does. 
To  be  told  that  a  thing  was  done  so  and  so,  without  giv- 
ing any  rational  idea  of  the  powers  used  and  how  applied, 
conveys  no  food  for  the  soul.  For  that  can  be  fed  only 
through  the  rational  faculties.  But  the  spiritual  history 
we  can  understand,  and  apply  it  to  our  salvation.  There- 
fore, in  this,  we  get  the  things  which  God  designs  for  us. 
And  what  do  we  want  more  ? 

In  the  expression  "  the  heaven  and  the  earth,"  we  see 
the  internal  and  the  external  planes  of  the  niind  ;  in  the 
"  light "  used,  we  see  the  truth  for  those  minds.  In  the' 
first  three  days,  we  see  the  process  of  educating  and  de- 
veloping the  external  or  natural  mind,  that  it  may  be- 
come a  basis  or  vessel  for  spiritual  things.  By  correspond- 
ence, we  see,  in  the  water,  natural  truth  for  that  mind ; 
and  in  the  grass,  we  see  natural  good  growing  in  the 
affections ;  and  in  this  growing,  we  see  action  ;  and  in 
the  trees  bearing  fruit,  we  see  good  works.  Here  are 
the  first  three  days  or  states,  produced  in  true  order,  em- 
bracing the  faith,  charity,  and  works  of  the  natural  mind. 
This  prepares  man  for  spiritual  or  higher  work ;  for  through 
these  states  he  can  look  up  and  desire  spiritual  things. 
And  through  the  exercise  of  this  desire,  looking  to  the 
Lord  by  faith,  while  bearing  the  natural  fruits  of  right- 
eousness the  truth  gradually  enters  the  internal  will  or 
heaven  of  the  mind,  and  spiritual  love  to  God  is  felt 
in  the  soul ;  thence  comes  spiritual  faith ;  and  from  this 
love  and  faith  comes  spiritual  knowledge,  thus  producing 
the  fourth  day  or  state  of  mind.  This  love,  faith,  and 
knowledge  are  what  is  meant  by  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars 
placed  in  the  mental  heaven,  to  give  light  upon  the  mental 
earth. 

In  this  state  man  begins  to  be  truly  spiritual,  and  the 


THE   CHUKCH  243 

natural  man  begins  to  be  governed  by  spiritual  influences, 
so  that  it  can  bring  forth  something  more  alive  than  grass 
and  trees.  Therefore  the  intellectual  and  scientific  facul- 
ties of  the  mind  are  next  excited  by  heavenly  light,  and 
the  thoughts  and  scientific  reasonings  begin  to  be  spirit- 
ual, which  is  what  is  meant  by  the  waters  bringing  forth 
fishes  and  birds.  Next  the  will  of  the  natural  man  comes 
under  spiritual  influences  and  the  affections  become  heav- 
enly, which  is  what  is  meant  by  the  earth  bringing  forth 
animals  and  living  creatures. 

Under  this  state  of  things,  which  is  called  the  fifth 
day,  the  internal  and  external  minds  can  be  brought  to- 
gether for  mutual  action,  so  as  to  be  in  the  image  of  God ; 
and  the  union  of  these  minds  brings  man,  or  the  real  males 
and  females,  to  the  sixth  day,  or  state  of  creation. 

Thus  we  have  the  church,  or  men  and  women,  in  God's 
image :  but  they  have  much  yet  to  do  for  the  proper 
growth  and  development  of  their  minds,  before  they  reach 
the  seventh  state.  They  are  therefore,  as  mental  beings, 
commanded  to  be  fruitful  and  multiply  in  spiritual  things; 
to  replenish  their  natural  mind  or  earth  and  subdue  it ; 
and  to  govern  all  their  thoughts,  affections  and  propensities, 
which  is  what  is  meant  by  man's  having  dominion  over 
the  fish  of  the  sea,  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living 
thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth.  And  as  he  gains  this 
dominion,  replenishes  and  subdues  the  natural  mind,  and 
gets  the  complete  control  over  himself,  he  is  prepared  to 
enter  upon  the  seventh  state,  or  sabbath  of  rest  from  the 
six  days'  labor.  God  is  said  to  rest  because  it  is  His 
Spirit  that  does  the  work. 

"When  the  labor  of  the  sixth  day  is  finished,  man  has 
become  a  spiritual  man,  and  is  prepared  for  something 
higher.  As  a  spiritual  man,  truth  predominates,  and  he 


THE   CHURCH. 

holds  this  dominion  by  seeing  his  duty.  But  the  wants 
of  his  nature  are  not  satisfied ;  and  there  is  a  further  de- 
velopment awaiting  him,  which  we  find  described  in 
chapter  ii.  This  chapter  introduces  him  into  the  celestial 
state,  wherein  love  predominates. 

JSTow,  it  is  said  in  the  second  chapter,  that  "  there  was 
not  a  man  to  till  the  ground"  (ver.  5.)  And  yet  the 
human  race  had  been  created — "  male  and  female  " — we 
know  not  how  many  ;  and  they  had  increased  and  multi- 
plied, and  replenished  the  earth,  and  subdued  it.  Thus 
there  were  men  enough  to  replenish  and  subdue  the  earth, 
but  none  to  till  the  ground.  This  is  because,  by  replen- 
ishing and  subduing  the  earth  is  meant,  supplying  and 
controlling  the  natural  mind  by  the  truth,  which  is  spirit- 
ual work  ;  while,  by  tilling  the  ground  is  meant,  warming 
and  cultivating  the  natural  mind  with  love,  which  is  celes- 
tial work.  Thus,  subduing  either  the  natural  or  the  men- 
tal earth  makes  it  good  ground  for  tilling.  Therefore, 
the  reason  there  was  no  man  to  till  the  ground  is,  there 
was  then  no  celestial  man.  The  people  had  advanced 
only  to  the  spiritual  state.  They  could  then  subdue  the 
natural  mind,  by  the  power  of  the  truth,  but  they  had 
not  learned  to  till  that  mind,  and  fill  it  with  celestial  love, 
by  the  cultivation  of  merciful  and  kind  affections.  Thus 
the  earth  here  means  the  external  mind  made  spiritual ; 
while  the  ground  means  the  external  mind  made  celestial. 
Men  subdue  the  mental  earth  by  the  truth,  or  because 
they  see  it  to  be  right.  They  till  the  ground  by  love,  or 
because  \heyfeel  it  to  be  right. 

It  is  because  the  work  of  the  first  chapter  was  simply 
a  spiritual  work,  that  the  .word  "  God  "  only  is  used ;  by 
which  we  are  to  understand,  that  the  human  mind  was 
all  tho  while  under  the  direction  and  control  of  tin-  truth, 


THE   CHURCII.  245 

and  was  thus  becoming  spiritual ;  whereas,  in  the  second 
chapter,  it  is  Jehovah  God,  or  Love  and  Truth  operating 
in  the  heart  together,  which  till  the  ground,  or  make  man 
celestial.  Thus,  the  second  chapter  takes  men  where  the 
first  leaves  them,  and  it  advances  them  on  to  the  celestial 
state.  And  the  process  of  the  work  is  described  in  the 
following  words  :  "  And  the  LORD  God  made  man  (man- 
kind) of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his 
nostrils  the  breath  of  lives ;  and  man  became  a  living 
soul."  Here  we  see  that  the  celestial  state  is  produced 
by  bringing  love  or  good  will  down  into  the  lowest,  smallest 
things  of  the  external  mind — into  the  very  dust  of  the 
ground.  This  is  accomplished  by  doing  all  the  little 
things  of  life  kindly,  from  love  to  the  neighbor.  For 
dust  denotes  the  lowest  external  things  of  the  mind.  This 
work  of  mercy  and  kindness  is  what  forms  man  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground,  because  it  makes  him  manly  in  the 
least  things,  and  fills  the  whole  mind  with  love  to  God 
and  good  will  toward  men.  This  makes  man  a  "  living 
soul,"  because  it  makes  all  his  natural  affections  alive 
with  love.  In  this  way  the  true  church — the  kingdom  of 
heaven — is  formed. 

But  the  work  stops  not  here.  Men  are  now  prepared 
to  make  a  garden  of  their  mind,  because  they  can  now 
till  the  ground.  Therefore,  it  is  next  said  in  the  record, 
that  "  the  LORD  God  planted  a  garden  eastward  in  Eden." 
Planting  the  garden  is  bringing  the  truths  into  the  warm 
celestial  ground  of  the  mind.  This  garden  of  Eden,  there- 
fore, is  the  human  mind,  not  of  one  person  only,  but  of 
all  the  human  family  then  upon  the  earth,  who  were  far 
enough  advanced.  They  could,  now,  so  till  the  ground 
as  to  produce  good  mental  fruit-trees.  Thus  the  trees  of 
this  garden  were  all  the  mental  principles,  growing  from 


24:6  THE  CHURCH. 

the  ground  of  love.  The  rivers  of  the  garden  were  all 
truths  flowing  from  the  Lord. 

Here  the  human  family,  in  this  state  of  paradise,  were 
commanded  to  dress  and  keep  this  mental  garden.  Herein 
all  the  principles  of  the  mind  were  made  new,  and  put 
on  the  celestial  aspect.  The  very  affections  of  the  soul 
were  all  made  new,  or  celestial,  and  the  people  under- 
stood their  quality,  and  could  read  their  own  hearts.  This 
we  are  taught  in  the  following  language :  "  Out  of  the 
ground  the  LOKD  God  formed  every  beast  of  the  field, 
and  fowl  of  the  air,  and  brought  them  to  Adam  (or  man) 
to  see  what  he  would  call  them  ;  "  that  is,  the  people  were 
enabled  to  know  the  quality  of  their  thoughts  and  feelings. 

Here  it  may  be  noticed  that,  in  the  first  chapter,  water 
brought  forth  the  birds  ;  that  is,  the  thoughts  were  spirit- 
ual :  in  this  chapter  they  are  formed  of  the  ground;  that 
is,  they  are  celestial  or  flow  from  love.  And  so  we  may 
see  why  the  trees  and  the  beasts  are  said  to  be  created 
over  again  :  it  is  because,  in  the  first  chapter,  these  prin- 
ciples of  the  mind  were  created  by  means  of  the  truth, 
and  the  earth  produced  them.  They  now  have  a  higher 
creation,  by  means  of  love,  and  the  ground  gives  them 
forth.  Here  we  have  the  highest  state  to  which  the 
human  mind  advanced  before  the  fall.  It  is  a  true  celes- 
tial church,  with  everything  orderly  and  heavenly. 

"We  have  now  given  the  process  of  the  creation  of 
celestial  men,  who  act  in  all  things  from  pure  love  to  God 
and  the  neighbor.  And  it  is  applicable  to  men  in  all  ages. 
It  is  the  way  celestial  men  are  now  created.  The  phrase 
"  in  the  beginning,"  is  just  as  applicable  to  one  period  of 
time  as  another.  There  was  no  beginning  with  God ;  but 
there  is  a  beginning  with  everything  that  is  created ;  and, 
as  it  regards  the  thing  itself,  it  is  created  in  the  beginning. 


THE   CHURCH.  24:7 

And,  as  God  never  began  to  be,  so  He  never  began  to  feel, 
think  and  act,  or  create  ;  for  He  is  "  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever  " — a  Creator  always. 

Of  this  happy  celestial  family  the  history  is  brief,  and 
we  know  but  little  about  it.  But  we  have  much  ground 
of  belief  that  it  was  very  numerous ;  for,  from  what  we 
know  of  the  process  of  the  mental  growth  and  decline  of 
nations,  it  must  have  taken  a  long  time  to  advance  the 
human  race  from  a  state  of  entire  ignorance,  when  "  dark- 
ness was  upon  the  faces  of  the  abyss  "  of  the  soul,  up  to 
this  high  state  of  celestial  light  and  life.  "Nor  could  they 
have  suddenly  or  rapidly  declined  into  evil. 

But  the  time  came  when  they  found  that  "  it  was  not 
good  to  be  alone"  To  be  alone,  as  individuals  or  as  a 
people,  was  to  be  single  minded,  one  in  heart  and  mind, 
and  one  with  the  Lord.  It  was  to  have  no  two  sides  or 
parties  in  anything  ;  but  for  all  to  yield  implicitly  to  the 
Lord's  will.  Thus  they  began  to  get  tired  of  their  oneness 
of  state,  and  to  want  some  variety,  and  to  act  more  as 
many  than  as  one  alone.  They  wanted  the  privilege  of 
saying  either  yes  or  no. 

This  uneasy  state  of  mind  is  the  germ  of  "  the  fall." 
God  saw  that  man  felt  that  "  it  was  not  good  for  him  to 
be  alone."  Therefore,  it  is  written  that  "  the  LOKD  God 
caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam,*  and  he  slept." 

*  It  is  important  here  to  remember  that,  in  the  Hebrew  language,  there 
are  two  words  to  denote  man ;  one  of  which  is  '  Adam,'  and  the  other  is 
4  Aish ;'  that  the  word  Adam,  or  man,  denotes  a  human  being  in  general, 
without  regard  to  sex — humanity — the  race ;  and  the  word  4  Aish,'  or  man, 
denotes  a  male  human  being  only ;  and  also  that  where  it  says,  that  "  it  is  not 
good  that  the  man  should  be  alone,"  or  that  "  the  LORD  God  caused  a  deep 
sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam,"  and  in  all  other  previous  instances,  where  the  word 
4  man '  is  used,  in  these  two  chapters  of  Genesis,  that  word,  in  the  original, 
denotes  mankind  without  regard  to  sex. 


24:8  THE   CHURCH. 

Now  the  Lord  is  often  said,  in  Scripture,  to  do  what 
He  only  permits  to  be  done.  The  deep  sleep  man  brought 
upon  himself ;  and  it  was  this  :  The  human  race,  in  try- 
ing to  reason  from  their  own  proprium,  began  to  fall  into 
a  state  of  darkness  and  doubt  as  to  whether  their  wisdom 
were  all  from  the  Lord,  or  partly  from  themselves.  This 
darkness  was  the  sleep.  They  were  no  longer  awake  or 
alive  to  the  Lord's  will  and  their  duty  ;  their  understand- 
ings were  becoming  dark  and  their  affections  cold. 

But,  to  understand  the  Scripture  record  of  the  process 
through  which  the  church  or  human  nature  passed,  dur- 
ing "  the  fall,"  we  must  have  clear  and  distinct  ideas  of 
the  male  and  female  elements  of  the  mind,  in  their  gen- 
eral nature,  without  regard  to  individuals  or  sex.  And 
we  see  that  there  must  be  these  two  spiritual  elements, 
or  there  could  not  be  the  male  and  female  ultimates;  and 
that  these  elements  must  pervade  the  entire  universe,  by 
influx,  or  all  nature  would  not  present  the  male  and  fe- 
male qualities.  In  God,  they  are  Love  and  Wisdom  ;  in 
man,  they  are  truth  and  goodness ;  in  animals,  they  are 
thoughts  and  feelings ;  in  vegetables,  they  are  light  and 
heat,  all  coming  from  God,  by  means  of  the  living  Divine 
Influx.  Woman  is  so  organized  as  to  express  more  of  the 
goodness,  and  man  more  of  the  truth.  Therefore,  the 
woman  manifests,  of  this  influx,  more  of  its  gentleness, 
mercy,  tenderness,  and  goodness ;  and  man,  more  of  its 
truth,  justice,  judgment,  and  power.  Thus  we  learn,  from 
the  Holy  "Word,  that  the  truths  are  male  principles,  and 
goods,  female.  Hence  the  Lord,  as  the  Truth,  is  called 
the  husband  of  the  church,  as  goodness.  And  as  truths 
are  for  the  understanding,  and  goods  for  the  will,  so,  spir- 
itually speaking,  the  understanding  is  the  male  depart- 
ment of  the  mind,  and  the  will,  the  female  department. 


THE   CHURCH.  249 

Therefore,  every  person  must  have  male  and  female  ele- 
ments ;  male,  for  the  thoughts ;  and  female,  for  the  feel- 
ings. For,  without  the  united  action  of  the  will  and  the 
understanding,  man  could  do  nothing.  These  elements, 
in  their  origin,  are  the  root  and  source  of  all  creation 
and  action,  being  in  the  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom  of  the 
Great  Jehovah,  and  going  forth  "  the  Life  of  all  things." 

ISTow,  by  keeping  the  idea  of  these  general  male  and 
female  elements  in  the  mind,  without  regard  to  sex,  we 
shall  see  that  a  community  of  people  as  a  body  must  have 
its  male  and  female  elements  pervading  all  its  parts  as 
though  it  were  one  mind :  the  general  understanding  be- 
ing the  male  department,  and  the  general  will,  the  female. 

From  this  view  we  see  that  the  darkened  understand- 
ing of  the  people  of  Eden,  was  the  Adam,  or  male  prin- 
ciple, which  wras  asleep.  Sleep  is  a  term  often  used  in  the 
"Word  to  denote  a  state  of  doubtfulness,  and  indifference  of 
mind.  To  such  persons  the  Lord  says,  "  Awake,  thou  that 
sleep est,  and  arise  from  the  dead." 

Now,  that  primeval  people  had  turned  their  thoughts 
away  from  the  Lord  toward  themselves,  and  had  studied 
so  hard  to  find  out  what  there  really  was  of  them,  inde- 
pendent of  God — what  their  very  selfhood  was  in  itself — 
that  their  understanding,  or  Adam  principle,  had  become 
beclouded  with  mystery.  This  was  their  deep  sleep. 
Their  understanding,  or  male  department,  was  in  dark- 
ness, and  their  will,  or  female  element,  had  become  cold. 
Hence  the  will  did  not  ardently  love  the  things  of  the 
understanding,  for  they  were  gloomy  and  doubtful ;  and 
the  understanding  saw  nothing  very  inviting  in  the  will, 
it  was  so  indifferent. 

But  the  Lord,  who  is  ever  in  effort  to  help  men  out  of 
their  difficulties,  by  coming  to  them,  under  every  trial, 
11* 


250  THE   CHURCH. 

with  something  adapted  to  their  state,  took  this  coldness 
away  from  the  affections  of  the  people,  and  this  darkness 
away  from  their  understandings,  by  teaching  them  that 
men  had  a  selfhood,  and  what  it  was,  and  that  they  were 
free  to  exercise  it  and  love  it  as  their  own,  and  therefore, 
to  be  no  longer  "  alone,"  provided  they  would  acknowledge 
that  all  the  power  to  act,  and  everything  good  and  true, 
were  given  them  from  the  Lord. 

This  was  a  new  truth  to  them,  and  just  what  their 
state  wanted  ;  and  it  produced  a  new  state  of  mind,  giv- 
ing them  much  joy.  For  this  new  truth  in  the  under- 
standing, or  Adam  department  of  the  mind,  could  be  re- 
ceived and  warmly  embraced  by  the  new  affections  in 
the  will,  or  Eve  department.  Thus  the  general  mind  of 
the  people,  which  was  before  dark  and  cold,  was  now 
light  and  warm. 

Now  this  cold  and  indifferent  state  of  the  will  toward 
the  darkened  understanding,  and  toward  the  Lord  as  the 
Truth,  is  what  is  meant  by  the  rib  which  was  taken  away ; 
and  the  warm  affection  which  the  people  received  for  the 
new  truth,  is  what  is  meant  by  the  woman,  or  flesh,  which 
took  the  place  of  the  rib  :  flesh  denotes  goodness. 

This  new  truth  in  the  understanding  of  the  people,  is 
the  Lord  as  the  "Word,  the  Husband  of  the  church.  And 
the  goodness  of  these  new  affections,  in  the  will,  is  the 
church,  the  bride.  And  this  union  of  truth  in  the  under- 
standing with  good  in  the  will,  is  used  in  the  Word  as  a 
symbol  of  the  relation  between  husband  and  wife. 

Now,  it  is  because  the  will  of  the  people  received  these 
new  and  joyous  affections  through  the  truth  in  the  under- 
standing, which  showed  them  that  they  were  free  agents 
and  need  not  be  alone,  that  it  is  said  that  the  woman  was 
taken  out  of  the  man.  For  the  new  truth,  which  the  Lord 


THE  CHURCH.  251 

here  gave  to  the  understanding,  contained  within  it  the 
very  goodness  which  made  the  will  so  happy  ;  and  which 
the  will  or  woman  received  from  the  understanding  or 
man.  And  as  the  understanding  and  the  will  are  now 
brought  joyously  together,  it  is  therefore  added  that  "  a 
man  shall  leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  cleave 
unto  his  wife  ;  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh." 

It  may  seem  strange  that  the  cold  selfhood  of  man 
should  be  called  a  rib  or  bone.  But  it  is  because  a  bone 
has  but  little  feeling.  And  for  this  reason  it  is  often 
used,  in  the  Word,  in  that  sense.  Thus  the  Psalmist  says, 
"  Make  me  to  have  joy  and  gladness,  that  the  bones  which 
thou  hast  broken  may  rejoice."  Here,  by  broken  bones 
are  meant  broken  affections,  or  subdued  selfhood.  Break- 
ing a  bone,  by  the  Lord,  is  the  same  as  taking  out  a  rib 
or  destroying  a  dead  selfhood. 

Now,  the  state  of  man's  selfhood  is  the  state  of  the 
church  in  him.  And  a  man's  selfhood  is  either  dead  or 
alive.  It  is  dead  when  he  loves  self  solely  for  the  sake 
of  self.  It  is  alive  when  he  loves  self  for  the  sake  of  the 
Lord  ;  for  then  he  loves  his  neighbor  as  himself.  In  the 
new  selfhood  which  was  given  in  the  place  of  the  rib,  the 
people  saw  that  they  were  not  good  in  and  of  themselves  ; 
and  seeing  this,  and  looking  to  the  Lord,  they  loved  Him 
for  the  goods  and  truths  that  were  in  them  from  Him, 
and  they  loved  themselves  also  for  what  God  gave  them. 
Here  we  have  the  condition  of  the  church,  or  the  state 
of  man,  when  his  mind  was  first  opened  to  a  true  knowl- 
edge of  his  own  selfhood,  giving  him  some  ideas  of  what 
was  right  and  wrong  in  his  thoughts  and  feelings.  This 
was  an  important  and  responsible  position  to  stand  in ; 
and  no  doubt  much  valuable  knowledge  was  gained,  as 
they  looked  to  the  Lord  and  followed  His  directions,  in 


252  THE   CHURCH. 

their  new  state  of  the  union  of  goodness  and  truth  in 
them.  But  the  history  leaves  us  in  entire  ignorance  of 
either  their  progress,  or  of  the  time  of  their  continuance 
in  this  happy  state. 

For  we  next  find  them,  under  temptations,  eating  of 
the  forbidden  tree.  Their  happy  state,  before  they  yielded 
to  the  subtlety  of  the  serpent,  is  symbolized  by  a  garden. 
In  this  lovely  garden,  all  was  sweet  and  fresh  as  spring. 
Not  a  thorn  or  thistle  to  mar  the  beauty  of  the  human 
intellect.  There  stood  the  Tree  of  life,  laden  with  the 
fruits  of  eternal  love.  This  tree  was  God  Himself  in  His 
mercy  and  truth.  It  was  the  tree  of  Divine  Wisdom 
giving  forth  goodness.  Its  fruits  gave  life,  health,  happi- 
ness, and  peace  to  the  soul.  There,  also,  was  the  tree  of 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  This  was  the  tree  of  man's 
selfhood ;  of  man's  wisdom,  humbly  acknowledged  to  be 
all  from  the  Lord.  It  was  then  a  lovely  tree,  bearing 
the  fruits  of  peace,  of  knowledge,  and  of  good  will,  all 
received  from  the  Tree  of  Life.  Both  these  trees  were 
necessary  for  the  cultivation  and  development  of  this 
mental  garden — the  human  mind. 

The  tree  of  man's  knowledge  took  root  in  man's  self- 
hood. This  selfhood  is  the  human  element  given  man  by 
God,  in  order  that  he  may  know  God  and  freely  love  Him. 
Man's  selfhood,  therefore,  was  a  good  tree,  of  God's  own 
planting ;  and  without  its  cultivation  and  growth,  man 
would  be  only  an  animal,  not  a  man.  The  elements  of  tliis 
tree  were  freedom  and  rationality.  Without  these  ele- 
ments, the  human  mind  would  be  a  machine.  This  tree, 
therefore,  is  what  gives  man  his  distinct  individuality,  and 
makes  him  human.  But  this  tree  alone  would  not  make 
a  man.  It  has  no  life  of  its  own.  Man  is  not  a  self-exist- 
ent being.  Therefore,  in  order  to  have  a  man  in  the 


THE   CHUKCH.  253 

image  and  likeness  of  his  God,  the  Tree  of  Life  must  also 
be  there,  acknowledged  and  loved.  Now,  while  man 
went  to  the  Tree  of  Life  for  goodness  and  truth — while  he 
looked  to  the  Lord  for  wisdom  and  guidance — all  was 
well :  the  garden  of  his  mind  was  budding  and  blossom- 
ing with  new  beauty,  the  Tree  of  Life  was  exhibiting  new 
flowers  and  fruits,  or  new  wisdom  and  goodness,  every 
day.  And  his  own  tree  of  knowledge  was  growing  up, 
straight  and  beautiful,  bearing  the  fruits  of  righteousness, 
and  mercy,  for  his  neighbors.  But  when  man,  in  the 
exercise  of  his  freedom  and  curiosity,  turned  away  from 
the  Tree  of  Life,  and  ate  of  the  tree  of  his  own  wrisdom, 
he  forgot  his  God,  and  became  wise  in  his  own  eyes. 
When  he  ate  of  his  own  righteousness — of  the  tree  of  his 
own  selfhood — it  began  to  bear  fruits  only  for  himself. 
Before  this,  it  was  a  generous  tree,  bearing  all  its  fruits 
of  kindness  for  the  neighbor.  Now,  it  was  a  selfish  tree, 
feeling  kind  only  toward  self;  and,  therefore,  was  feeding 
and  inflating  the  mind  with  self- wisdom  and  self-righteous- 
ness. Thus  he  learned  to  value  himself  more  than  his 
God,  and  the  world  more  than  his  neighbor.  And  from 
this  tree  of  self- wisdom,  bearing  the  fruits  of  self-right- 
eousness, have  sprung  all  the  evils  and  vices  of  humanity. 
Had  men  never  eaten  of  this  tree,  but  always  gone  to  the 
Lord  for  wisdom,  it  would  then  have  remained  ever  grace- 
ful and  lovely,  because  always  modestly  blooming  with 
wisdom,  drawn  from  the  Tree  of  Life. 

But  man,  by  trying  his  own  skill,  by  experimenting 
in  his  own  way,  and  by  gradually  overreaching  the  divine 
rules  of  order  and  justice,  began  to  imagine  that  he  was 
really  becoming  skilful  and  wise  himself ;  and  this  self- 
wisdom  became  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  or  to  the  understand- 
ing, and  a  tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise.  And  his 


254:  THE   CHURCH. 

growing  vanity  began  to  think,  and  to  desire  to  have 
others  think,  that  it  was  all  his  own  wisdom.  And  thus, 
step  after  step,  in  his  own  way,  he  grew  daily  in  the  esti- 
mation of  his  own  importance,  and  finally  took  to  himself 
the  merit  of  all  the  wisdom  and  goodness  that  his  God  had 
given  him.  Thus  he  went  to  himself  for  knowledge  ;  de- 
pended upon  his  own  sagacity  ;  and  gave  forth  to  others 
all  that  he  knew,  as  the  result  of  his  own  wonderful 
powers  and  prudence.  In  this  way,  he  lost  all  triie  knowl- 
edge of  his  God,  and  even  worshipped  himself ;  and  de- 
sired others  to  worship  him.  Thus  came  sin. 

And  now,  every  person,  in  the  supreme  love  of  self, 
inwardly  desires  the  praise,  adoration,  and  worship  of  all 
others.  This  selfish  state  of  mind  leads  to  all  the  strifes 
und  contentions  among  men,  for  praise,  and  power,  and 
property,  and  preeminence ;  and  leads  men  into  every 
degree  of  sin  and  vice,  for  self-gratification. 

But,  as  the  people  were  falling,  God  was  in  effort  to 
save  them.  Thus  we  find  Him  calling  out  to  them,  in 
the  garden,  saying  to  Adam,  "  Where  art  thou  ?  "  At 
this  time,  the  garden  of  their  mind  .still  contained  many 
beautiful  trees  and  attractive  objects.  And  they  sought 
to  hide  themselves  among  the  remaining  good  principles 
of  their  mind  and  character  ;  that  is,  they  sought  to  keep 
the  good  qualities  of  their  nature  in  sight ;  and  to  hide 
their  guilt  and  shame  behind  them.  For  it  is  written, 
"  The  eyes  of  them  both  were  opened,  and  they  knew 
that  they  were  naked ; "  that  is,  their  understandings 
were  opened,  and  they  knew  their  evils  were  exposed  to 
the  divine  truth. 

Now,  from  the  expression  "  the  eyes  of  loth  of  them 
were  opened"  one  would  suppose,  from  the  literal  sense, 
that  only  two  persona  were  treated  of:  but  the  true  mean- 


THE   CHUBCH.  255 

ing  is,  the  understandings  of  both  males  and  females  were 
opened,  as  to  things  good  or  evil,  true  or  false.  For  they 
had  eaten  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil. 
Adam  and  Eve  therefore  do  not  mean  two  distinct  persons, 
in  this  history ;  but  the  men  arid  the  women ;  and  they 
mean,  also,  the  two  great  elements  of  the  human  mind,  the 
understanding  and  the  will,  which  every  person  possesses  : 
for  the  subject  relates  to  the  condition  of  the  human 
family.  And  as  the  word  "  Adam  "  is  the  proper  generic 
name  for  the  race,  and  means  all  mankind,  males  and 
females,  it  is  therefore  written,  "  male  and  female  created 
He  them  ;  and  called  their  name  Adam."  (Gen.  v.  2.) 

Now  the  question,  "  Where  art  thou  ?  "  was  the  Truth 
addressing  itself  first  to  the  understanding,  or  male  ele- 
ment. And  the  people  reasoned  among  themselves,  as 
to  the  cause  of  their  sins.  And  they  finally  came  to  the 
conclusion,  that  the  fault  was  in  the  will,  or  female  ele- 
ment ;  that  they  knew  better  than  to  sin,  but  that  they 
could  not  help  it.  And  how  common  it  is  for  people  thus 
to  excuse  themselves  at  the  present  day !  They  want 
some  way  to  get  rid  of  the  blame.  For  illustration : 
a  person  sins,  whether  male  or  female  :  he  reflects  upon 
it ;  and  his  judgment  or  male  element  acknowledges  the 
fact ;  he  sees  that  the  law  of  order  is  broken.  But  he 
comes  to  the  conclusion  that  he  is  not  to  blame  ;  that  it 
was  in  his  will  to  sin.  "  The  woman,"  he  says,  or  the 
will,  "  that  thou  gavest  to  be  with  me,  she  gave  me  of 
the  tree,  and  I  did  eat ;  "  thus  casting  all  the  blame  en- 
tirely from  himself,  on  to  God.  For  he  says  to  himself, 
I  did  not  make  my  will — my  disposition — God  gave  it  to 
me.  "  The  woman  whom  Thou  gavest  to  be  with  me,  she 
gave  me."  Thus  men  reasoned  in  the  garden,  and  thus 
they  reason  at  this  day. 


256  THE    CHURCH. 

But  as  they  continued  to  examine  into,  and  to  reason 
upon,  the  subject  of  their  troubles,  the  question,  by  the 
light  of  truth,  came  up,  as  to  where  the  will  got  the  dispo- 
sition to  sin? — whether  God  gave  it?  For  "the  LORD 
God — the  Truth — said  unto  the  woman,  What  is  this  that 
thou  hast  done  ?  "  And,  after  mature  deliberation,  they 
changed  their  minds,  as  to  the  disposition  to  sin  being  ori- 
ginally in  the  will,  and  decided  that  it  was  in  the  senses. 
Tims  they,  in  their  will,  answered,  and  said,  "  The'  serpent 
beguiled  "  the  will,  and  the  will  sinned.  Or  the  will  says, 
"  The  serpent  beguiled  me,  and  I  did  eat."  And  here  they 
put  all  the  blame  away  from  both  the  will  and  the  under- 
standing on  to  the  senses — the  serpent  principle.  So  man 
now  says  he  is  not  to  blame  for  his  sins — that  he  did  not 
make  his  senses — that,  if  the  temptation  had  not  been  in 
his  way,  he  should  not  have  sinned.  If  he  had  not  seen 
the  property,  he  should  not  have  stolen  it.  If  he  had  not 
heard  the  man's  language,  and  seen  His  actions,  and  thus 
got  angry,  he  should  not  have  murdered  him.  Thus,  he 
says,  the  senses  of  hearing  and  seeing  beguiled  the  will 
into  these  acts  of  stealing  and  murder  ;  and  the  will  over- 
ruled the  understanding.  "  The  wroman  gave,"  and  man 
sinned.  Thus  the  blame  is  all  laid  upon  the  serpent. 
And  so  now,  God,  or  the  Truth,  says  to  man,  "  Where 
art  thou  ?  "  And  these  are  his  selfish  replies,  and  flimsy 
excuses ;  wrhen  he  might  readily  see,  that  all  that  comes 
from  God  must  be  good  and  true ;  and  that  man  there- 
fore must  have  depraved  his  own  senses,  corrupted  his 
own  will,  and  beclouded  his  own  understanding. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  first  effect  of  sin  is  to  make  man 
ashamed ;  he  feels  like  a  naked  man,  and  wants  to  hide 
himself  from  the  scrutiny  of  Truth,  behind  a  fair  outside. 
Next  comes  deception,  which  is  mental  darkness :  he 


THE  CHURCH.  257 

avoids  the  light.  And  the  next  thing  is  to  justify  him- 
self, and  to  cast  the  blame,  first  upon  one  thing  and  then 
upon  another,  and  lastly  upon  his  God.  Then  follows 
hatred  to  God  and  man  ;  and  the  love  of  nothing  but  what 
contributes  to  his  own  selfish  gratification. 

Thus  the  race  fell  into  sin.  And  the  narrative 
next  declares  that  God  "  drove  them  out  of  the  garden." 
The  garden  being  an  orderly  and  happy  state  of  the  mind, 
it  was  their  sins  that  dispossessed  them  of  it.  But  it  was 
the  Lord,  as  the  Truth,  that  apparently  drove  them  out, 
or  rather,  that  showed  them  that  they  were  out,  and  ren- 
dered them  unhappy  from  a  sense  of  their  guilt.  And 
now  they  find  themselves  becoming  mOre  and  more  con- 
tentious, depraved,  and  miserable.  This  is  a  sad  state  of 
the  church  :  and  they  see  that  it  cannot  be  long  endured  ; 
that  it  must  lead  to  destruction.  Something  must  be  done 
to  restore  harmony  and  peace  among  them.  To  accom- 
plish this  object,  the  understanding  and  the  will  of  the 
people — the  Adam  and  Eve  of  the  church — set  themselves 
to  work  to  devise  some  doctrine  or  means  which  they 
could  use  for  their  good  or  the  benefit  of  the  church. 
They  needed  some  rules  of  life.  And  they  conceived 
and  brought  forth  the  doctrine  of  faith,  and  called  its 
name  Cain. 

Faith  was  the  first-begotten  of  the  church.  They  re- 
solved that  they  would  not  forget  their  God ;  but  would 
believe  on  Him,  and  acknowledge  His  supremacy  and 
laws.  But  they  found  that  one  rule  of  life  was  not 
enough.  And  they  brought  forth  and  established  another 
doctrine,  which  was  charity ;  and  they  called  its  name 
Abel.  Thus,  Adam,  or  the  understanding  of  the  church 
or  people,  in  connection  with  Eve,  or  the  will  of  the 
church,  brought  forth  and  established,  for  the  guidance 


258  THE  CHURCH. 

and  government  of  the  community,  these  two  fundamen- 
tal doctrines  or  rules  of  life,  Faith  and  Charity,  called 
Cain  and  Abel.  These  rules  taught  them  that  they  must 
believe  in  the  Lord  and  regard  His  laws ;  and  also  love 
one  another  and  live  in  peace. 

In  consequence  of  the  fall,  these  rules  had  become  ab- 
solutely necessary  for  the  order  and  safety  of  the  com- 
munity. They  had  eaten  of  the  forbidden  fruit-?— the  tree 
of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  Their  eyes  or  understand- 
ings were  opened.  And  they  had. become  wise  in  their 
own  eyes,  proud  of  their  own  wisdom.  This  brought  dis- 
cord. Each  wanted  to  rule.  And  they  were  under  the 
necessity  of  looking  to  the  Lord,  by  faith,  and  exercising 
the  laws  of  charity,  in  order  to  make  life  agreeable.  And 
to  accomplish  this,  the  church  established  these  two  doc- 
trines. They  had  now  faith  in  the  Lord,  and  charity 
toward  the  neighbor.  And  so  long  as  they  regarded  these 
doctrines,  all  went  on  well,  of  course.  This  was  the  best 
that  the  Lord  could  do  for  them. 

But,  as  selfishness  increased,  some  ceased  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  life  of  charity.  It  was  more  duty  to  the 
neighbor  than  they  were  willing  to  perform.  And  they 
gradually  reasoned  themselves  into  the  belief  that  faith  in 
God  was  all  the  doctrine  that  it  was  necessary  to  exercise. 
So  long  as  they  had  charity,  they  offered  the  firstlings  of 
the  flock,  or  their  best  affections,  to  the  Lord.  But  the 
faith  of  the  head  began  to  reason  against  the  offerings  of 
the  heart,  and  these  people  said  to  themselves,  It  is  not 
necessary  to  our  salvation  to  love  our  neighbor :  faith  in 
God  is  far  better.  We  need  not  give  away  any  longer  the 
firstlings  of  the  flock — our  best  affections — for  an  offering ; 
we  want  them  for  ourselves.  Surely,  if  we  give  the  fruit 
of  the  ground,  or  time  faith  in  the  Lord,  that  will  be  all- 


THE   CHTJKCH.  259 

sufficient.  Love  to  the  neighbor  cannot  save  us.  Salva- 
tion is  of  God.  We  can  do  nothing.  If  we  believe  in 
the  Lord,  He  will  save  us  by  that  faith. 

Thus  the  head  reasoned  against  the  heart,  and  the  will 
and  the  understanding  became  separated.  A  strong  con- 
tention arose  between  the  judgment  and  the  feelings,  or 
between  faith  and  charity,  and  eventually  the  selfishness 
of  the  natural,  earthly  man  overruled  the  better  feelings 
of  the  heart,  and  finally  destroyed  the  love  of  the  neigh- 
bor. 

Thus  Cain,  or  Faith,  slew  his  brother  Abel,  or  Char- 
ity. The  good  affections  of  the  heart  were  destroyed. 
Faith  alone  was  the  cold  and  selfish  state  of  a  portion  of 
the  church.  The  church  was  therefore  divided  into  two 
parties.  Thus  the  Cainites,  or  faith-alone-people,  had 
their  own  peculiar  views,  distinct  from  those  who  still  ad- 
hered to  the  principle  of  charity.  But  they  were  unhap- 
py creatures,  as  all  must  be  who  have  no  true  love  for  one 
another. 

"  And  the  LORD  God  said  unto  Cain,  Where  is  Abel, 
thy  brother  ?  And  he  said,  I  know  not.  Am  I  my  broth- 
er's keeper  ? "  Thus,  in  a  reflective  moment,  the  Lord,  as 
the  Truth,  entered  their  minds,  and  they  said  to  them- 
selves, Where  is  my  love  to  the  neighbor  ?  They  saw  and 
felt  their  coldness,  and  they  answered,  I  know  not  where 
my  charity  is  gone.  And  they  answered  truly,  for  they 
had  ceased  to  be  their  brother's  keeper.  Their  love  of  the 
neighbor  was  dead.  They  felt  condemned  under  the  light 
of  this  truth.  They  saw  that  they  were  not  what  they 
should  be.  And,  as  said  by  the  Lord,  when  they  should 
till  the  ground,  or  cultivate  the  mind,  it  would  not  yield 
its  strength :  for  faith  without  charity  can  produce  no 
good  fruits.  The  mental  earth  cannot  be  cultivated  by 


260  THE   CHURCH. 

truth  without  goodness.  And  in  their  luminous  moments, 
they  saw  that  they  were  fugitives  and  vagabonds  in  the 
earth.  And  they  were  fearful  of  becoming  entirely  de- 
stroyed or  wretched.  But  the  light  which  thus  showed 
them  their  condition,  did  not  reach  their  hearts  so  as  to 
enkindle  benevolence,  but  only  to  excite  selfish  fear.  And 
as  the  truth  had  failed  to  call  them  back  to  goodness,  the 
next  effort  of  the  Lord  was  to  keep  them  from  falling 
lower.  And  He  therefore  said,  "  Whosoever  slayeth  Cain, 
vengeance  shall  be  taken  on  him  sevenfold  :  "  that  is,  the 
Lord  told  them  by  the  Truth,  in  their  minds,  that  if  they 
should  destroy  their  faith  in  Him,  or  cease  to  believe  in 
Him,  they  would  be  sevenfold  more  wretched  than  they 
were  then.  Their  faith  still  gave  them  some  connection 
with  the  Lord.  There  was  something  living  in  it.  And 
if  they  should  lose  that,  then,  indeed,  they  would  fall  into 
the  lowest  wretchedness. 

He  who  disbelieves  in  a  God  whom  he  can  love,  is 
spiritually  or  mentally  most  miserable.  He  has  no  hope 
of  future  existence  or  heavenly  joys.  All  he  can  see  be- 
fore him,  when  this  life  ends,  is  darkness  and  extinction. 
And  even  this  life  loses  its  brightness  and  its  true  delights. 
These  Cainites,  therefore,  settled  down  in  the  doctrine  of 
faith  alone.  They  became  a  portion  of  the  church  that  dif- 
fered from  the  main  body.  And  the  Lord  set  a  mark  upon 
them,  that  they  might  be  known  and  preserved.  That 
mark  was  Faith.  The  ensign  of  the  church  from  which 
they  sprung  would  be  Faith  and  Charity.  Name  or 
mark  means  quality.  Faith  or  Cain  was  the  quality  or 
name  of  the  new  sect.  That  was  their  mark  of  distinc- 
tion. And  so  long  as  they  should  wear  that  mark — so 
long  as  they  should  have  faith — they  would  have  some 
spiritual  life.  But,  being  without  charity,  the  light  of 


THE   CHURCH.  261 

their  faith  in  time  grew  dim  and  feeble.  Thus  it  is  said 
that  Cain  went  out  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and 
dwelt  in  the  land  of  Nod.  They  receded  from  the  light 
and  sunk  into  a  vagabond  state.  Places  denote  states  of 
mind ;  land  of  Nod,  a  vagabond  state,  or  a  state  desti- 
tute of  goodness  and  truth. 

u  And  Cain  knew  his  wife ;  and  she  conceived,  and 
bare  Enoch :  and  he  builded  a  city,  and  called  the  name 
of  the  city  after  the  name  of  his  son,  Enoch."  Now  Cain 
was  a  society  of  men  and  women  who  believed  in  faith 
alone.  Cain  also  means  the  understanding,  the  male  ele- 
ment of  that  body.  And  as  soon  as  these  Canutes  had 
cultivated  a  real  love  of  the  idea  of  faith  alone  ;  when  the 
feelings  of  the  heart  had  become  fully  wedded  to  that  sen- 
timent of  the  head  ;  those  feelings  were  the  wife — the  will 
and  the  understanding  of  the  people  were  wedded  in  that 
doctrine.  And  then  followed  the  birth  of  Enoch.  This 
church  of  Cain  could  have  offspring,  as  well  as  the  church 
of  Adam.  Thus  these  Cainites,  through  the  union  of  their 
wills  and  understandings,  gave  birth  to  a  whole  system  of 
doctrines  of  faith  alone.  Enoch,  the  child  born,  means 
these  doctrines.  This  is  known  because  city  means  doc- 
trines, and  name,  quality ;  and  it  is  said  they  builded  a 
city,  and  called  the  name  of  the  city  after  the  name  of 
their  son,  Enoch.  The  birth  of  Enoch,  therefore,  is  the 
establishment  of  these  doctrines  of  faith  alone.  And  the 
building  of  the  city  is  the  arrangement  of  these  doctrines 
into  a  system  of  faith. 

But  the  loss  of  Abel  could  not  be  made  up  by  all  the 
devices  and  powers  of  the  mind.  Where  charity,  the  very 
soul  and  life  of  society,  is  lacking,  there  is  a  want  which 
nothing  can  supply.  And  this  want  was  fast  pervading 
the  whole  Adamic  people — all  the  human  race  of  that 


262  THE   CHURCH. 

age.  Under  this  state  of  things,  something  further  must 
be  done.  Matters  could  not  go  on  much  further  in  this 
way,  and  be  endurable.  Therefore  it  is  written  that 
"Adam  knew  his  wife  again,  and  she  bare  a  son,  and 
called  his  name  Seth.  For  God,  said  she,  hath  appointed 
me  another  seed  instead  of  Abel,  whom  Cain  slew."  Here 
the  general  church  devised  a  new  doctrine,  or  way,  which 
would  supply  the  place  of  their  lost  charity,-  or  Abel. 
This  new  son  or  truth  of  doctrine,  brought  forth  by  the 
united  wisdom  and  love  of  the  church,  was  good  works. 
This  son,  Seth,  which  was  given  by  the  Lord  instead  of 
charity,  wa.s  not  charity  itself;  if  it  had  been  it  would 
have  been  called  Abel.  But  it  was  given  for  the  purpose 
of  restoring  to  the  people  charity,  for  it  was  given  in 
Abel's  stead.  And  the  divine  object  was  thereby  accom- 
plished. For  the  history  says  that  to  Seth  was  born  a  son, 
and  they  called  his  name  Enos  ;  and  that  then  began  men 
to  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

Tims  Seth,  or  good  works,  brought  forth  love  to  God 
and  the  neighbor.  For  to  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  is 
to  desire,  and  to  receive,  His  quality.  And  this  quality 
includes  mercy  and  kindness  toward  all.  Thus  we  see 
here  verified  the  great  truth,  taught  by  our  Lord,  that,  if 
we  would  enter  into  life,  we  must  keep  the  command- 
ments. The  Adamic  church  could  not  stand  without  the 
doctrine  of  works,  as  a  basis.  When  they  found  them- 
selves rapidly  falling,  they  established  the  doctrines  of 
faith  and  charity ;  and  supposed  these  were  rules  of  life 
enough.  But  faith  and  charity  cannot  stand  unless  they 
are  ultimated  and  grounded  in  works.  Unless  the  works 
of  faith  and  charity  are  kindly  performed,  Faith  will  sure- 
ly slay  his  brother  Charity.  We  now  see  why  Adam 
gave  names  to  only  three  children,  Faith,  Charity,  and 


THE   CHURCH.  263 

Works.  It  is  because  lie  was  the  church,  and  faith,  char- 
ity, and  works  embrace  everything  of  the  church.  They 
are  from  the  three  great  fundamental  principles,  Wisdom, 
Love,  and  Power.  The  doctrine  of  works  is  the  doctrine 
of  charity,  in  action.  And  if  we  are  not  charitable,  but 
have  natural  faith  enough  to  see  that  we  ought  to  be ;  and 
will  then  do  the  works  of  charity,  we  shall  become  so. 
We  now  see  the  necessity  of  protecting  Cain,  or  Faith, 
after  he  had  slain  his  brother.  For,  without  the  natural 
truth  of  faitli,  we  could  not  perform  good  works,  and  thus 
be  brought  into  the  love  of  the  neighbor,  and  thereby  ob- 
tain charity,  and  thence  true  spiritual  faith. 

The  lesson  we  draw  from  this  history  is  twofold. 
First,  that  if  we  cease  to  give  to  God  the  firstlings  of  our 
flock,  or  our  best  affections,  and  trust  to  our  own  faitli,  we 
shall  lose  our  charity,  fall  into  a  false  and  lifeless  state  of 
mind,  and  establish  ourselves  in  false  doctrines.  Or, 
what  is  the  same  thing,  we  shall  slay  our  brother  Abel, 
remove  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  to  the  land  of  ISTod, 
marry  a  wife,  and  build  a  city.  And  from  this  deplorable 
condition  we  can  never  be  removed  unless,  in  the  second 
place,  there  is  born  unto  us  Seth,  or  good  works,  and  we 
return  to  the  presence  of  our  God,  in  humble  obedience  to 
His  commandments. 

Tims  the  Lord  arrested  the  downward  progress  of  the 
race  for  a  season.  But  the  people  had  become  divided  in 
sentiment,  and  changes  were  frequently  made,  and  new 
things  devised  or  begotten,  by  the  church,  in  its  various 
branches,  under  different  names  of  persons  as  offspring, 
until  the  people  had  become  so  depraved  that  "  the  sons 
of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men  that  they  were  fair ;  and 
they  took  them  wives  of  all  which  they  chose."  (Gen.  vi, 
2.)  This  state  of  things  brought  on  the  flood.  For  by 


264:  THE    CIIUKCU. 

the  sons  of  God  are  meant  truths  in  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  and  by  the  daughters  of  men  are  meant  their  evils. 
Any  truth  from  God's  love  is  a  son  of  the  Father.  All 
truths  in  the  comple*  are  the  Son  of  God.  All  affections 
that  come  from  man's  selfish  proprium  are  evils  ;  and  are 
here  called  daughters  of  men.  Therefore,  for  the  truths 
of  the  head  to  think  the  evils  of  the  heart  fair,  and  become 
wedded  to  them,  is  to  falsify  those  truths,  and  fill  the 
mind  with  deceit.  Had  these  'sons  of  God  seen  the 
daughters  of  God  to  be  fair,  and  been  wedded  to  them,  all 
would  have  been  well,  for  by  daughters  of  God  would 
have  been  meant  good  principles. 

In  this  flood  of  falsities,  which  inundated  the  mental 
world,  the  most  ancient,  or  Adamic  church,  with  all  its 
branches,  came  to  an  end  on  the  earth  ;  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  good  affections,  thoughts,  and  principles  of  the 
mind  is  signified  by  the  destruction  of  animals,  birds,  &c., 
and  a  new  order  of  things  had  to  be  introduced.  Among 
the  people  called  Noah,  there  were  minds  that  could  re- 
ceive these  new  instructions  from  the  Lord,  and  become  the 
church  on  a  lower  plane  than  that  of  the  Adamic  church. 
/ 

By  Noah  and  his  family  are  meant  all  those  who  were 
willing  to  receive  and  regard  the  Lord's  new  instructions. 
By  the  ark  is  meant  the  church,  or  the  new  state  of  order 
which  the  Lord  was  establishing  in  their  minds,  as  to  doc- 
trines and  life.  The  church  is  now  often  called  the  ark 
of  safety.  By  the  materials  and  dimensions  of  the  ark  is 
meant  the  character  and  quality  of  the  doctrines  and  prin- 
ciples of  the  church.  This  may  at  first  strike  some  as 
strange  and  incredible.  But  this  is  a  rule  which  holds 
good,  by  correspondences,  throughout  the  entire  Word. 
Much  is  said  of  the  building  of  tabernacles  and  temples. 


THE   CHUKOII.  265 

Look  at  the  materials  and  dimensions  of  the  Holy  City  or 
New  Church  Doctrines — a  city  1,500  miles  square,  with 
gates,  and  walls,  and  foundations,  and  precious  stones,  and 
gold,  and  silver,  and  pearls,  and  glass,  and  trees,  and  riv- 
ers, and  fruits,  all  coming  down  from  God,  out  of  heaven, 
into  the  human  mind.  Is  the  description  of  the  ark,  as 
applied  to  the  principles  of  the  church  or  the  mind,  any 
more  strange  than  this  ? 

By  the  building  of*  the  ark  is  denoted,  the  practising 
and  establishing,  by  faithful  and  humble  obedience,  these 
new  principles  of  life  in  the  mind.  For  these  doctrines  and 
rules  are  various  principles  of  goodness  and  truth,  adapted 
to  the  states  and  wants  of  that  age.  And  when  these  prin- 
ciples are  received  into  the  mind,  that  mind  is  the  ark  or 
the  church.  And  though  Noah  and  his  family  are  said  to 
be  in  the  ark,  yet  the  ark  is  also  in  them.  Men  are  truly 
in  the  church  only  when  the  church  or  kingdom  is  in 
them.  "  I  in  thee  and  thou  in  Me,"  saith  the  Lord. 

The  three  stories  of  the  ark  denote  that  the  people 
were  taught  something  of  the  three  degrees  of  the  mind — 
celestial,  spiritual,  and  natural.  The  window,  in  the  top, 
denotes  that  they  were  taught  that  the  understanding  is 
the  receptacle  of  the  truth  of  the  Word,  the  true  light  of 
heaven.  The  door  in  the  side  denotes  that  they  were 
taught  that  they  could  also  receive  the  truth  by  hearing 
and  obeying  the  rules  of  the  church. 

By  their  entering  the  ark  is  meant  their  coming  under 
the  power  and  influence  of  these  doctrines  and  rules  of 
life.  By  the  animals,  birds,  and  so  forth,  entering  the 
ark,  is  meant  the  bringing  of  all  their  various  affections, 
thoughts,  and  propensities  within  the  control  of  the  new 
divine  rules.  The  clean  beasts  and  cattle  denote  the  good 
affections  of  the  mind,  and  the  unclean,  the  bad  affections. 
12 


266  THE   CHURCH. 

For  on  entering  the  ark,  or  coming  under  the  influence 
of  the  doctrines,  they  took  with  them  all  their  mental 
principles,  good  and  bad.  And  here,  in  the  church,  the 
bad  were  to  be  subdued.  The  good  are  said  to  go  in  by 
sevens,  because  seven  is  a  holy  number,  denoting  purity. 

What  is  meant  by  its  raining  40  days  and  40  nights 
may  be  seen  in  chap,  xiii,  on  numbers. 

At  the  time  they  entered  the  ark,  we  behold  the 
people  of  that  age  in  a  state  of  profound  darkness  and  er- 
ror :  their  whole  mental  earth  inundated  with  falses.  In 
the  midst  of  this  general  gloom  and  wretchedness,  we  see 
a  little  band,  called  Noah  and  his  family,  hearkening  to 
the  new  teachings  of  the  Lord,  and  forming  a  little 
church.  They  call  this  church  the  ark.  And  they  enter 
into  its  worship  and  instructions,  bringing  under  its  influ- 
ence all  their  wayward  and  various  thoughts,  feelings, 
and  propensities — every  living  creature  of  their  mind  and 
heart — and  they  feed  them  there  with  food  from  heaven, 
or  with  divine  goods  and  truths.  In  this  ark  or  church, 
they  keep  their  falses  under,  and  thus  the  ark  is  raised  in 
their  estimation  above  their  own  and  the  surrounding  wa- 
ters of  error,  until  its  doctrines  rise  to  the  very  summit 
of  their  affections.  They  truly  love  them.  The  ark  rests 
on  the  Ararat  of  their  hearts — their  love  to  God  and  His 
truth.  And  as  they  were  purified,  and  came  into  states 
of  true  thoughts  and  feelings,  they  felt  a  sincere  regard 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world  of  mankind  lying  in  dark- 
ness around  them.  And  they  kindly  sent  forth  the  dove 
to  see  if  the  waters  or  falses  were  abated  from  their 
minds.  The  dove  corresponds  to  the  Holy  Spirit — the 
spirit  of  truth  and  love. 

This  little  church  then  sent  forth  that  gentle  spirit  to 
the  world  of  mind  around,  to  see  if  the  darkness  of  error 


THE   CHURCH.  267 

had  subsided,  and  they  would  accept  the  truth.  But  all 
was  still  false — dark  as  night.  The  dove  found  no  rest  for 
the  sole  of  her  foot,  for  the  waters  were  on  the  whole 
face  of  the  earth.  "No  rnind  could  receive  the  truth. 
What  Christian  heart  that  has  a  new  and  heavenly  truth 
has  not  experienced  the  same  thing,  in  his  efforts  to  pre- 
sent that  truth  to  other  minds  ?  How  often  the  gentle 
dove  has  returned  unto  him,  into  the  ark  of  his  own  bosom, 
for  a  place  to  rest  her  foot ! 

Noah  first  sent  forth  a  raven,  a  bird  denoting  very  ex- 
ternal truth.  This  flew  to  and  fro  in  their  external  under- 
standings, till  their  falses  had  so  subsided  as  to  receive  it. 
But  they  could  receive  nothing  higher.  It  was  necessary 
that  they  should  have  the  external  truth  first,  denoted  by 
the  raven.  "  First  that  which  is  natural,  afterward  that 
which  is  spiritual." 

But  Noah,  after  the  return  of  the  dove,  waited  seven 
days,  or  till  they  had  come  into  new  states  of  mind  from 
the  exercise  of  the  natural  truth ;  and  he  sent  forth  the 
dove  again,  or  offered  them  the  spiritual  truth  once  more. 
But  their  perceptions  were  still  too  dark  to  receive  her ; 
and  she  returned  :  "  And,  lo,  in  her  mouth  was  an  olive 
leaf  plucked  off."  The  olive  tree,  from  its  oil,  denotes  ce- 
lestial love  :  the  leaf  denotes  the  truth  of  faith  from  that 
love.  The  return  of  the  dove,  with  the  olive  leaf  plucked 
off,  denotes  that  they  would  receive  some  little  of  spiritual 
truth,  or  some  faith,  but  could  not  yet  receive  the  love. 
The  leaf  was  plucked  off,  or  separated  from  the  tree. 
Noah  waited  yet  other  seven  days,  or  for  new  states  of 
mind,  and  sent  forth  the  dove  again,  and  then  they  re- 
ceived the  spirit  of  truth.  And  now  the  church  began  to 
spread  among  other  minds. 

Thus  was  established  the  Noatic  state  of  the  church — - 


268  THE   CHURCH. 

the  second  distinct  feature  of  the  Lord's  kingdom  among 
men,  symbolized  by  an  ark.  There  the  little  society  called 
Noah  and  his  family  were  the  church,  in  the  light  and  life 
of  new  Divine  Truths ;  while  all  the  community  around 
them  were  immersed  in  falsities.  But  Noah  instructed 
them  in  the  Divine  Truth.  This  we  are  taught  by  his 
sending  forth  the  dove,  which  denoted  the  Holy  Spirit 
— the  Spirit  of  Truth. 

And  Noah  planted  in  their  minds  a  vineyard ;  or,  in 
other  words,  the  people  of  this  church  cultivated  their 
hearts  by  the  reception,  propagation,  and  giving  forth  of 
spiritual  truths.  But  in  process  of  time  Noah  or  the 
church  fell  in  love  with  his  vineyard,  instead  of  God  who 
gave  it ;  and  they  became  drunken  with  the  mental  wine 
of  their  own  raising;  or,  in  other  words,  they  took  to 
themselves  the  merits  of  the  vineyard,  considered  the 
truths  their  own  wisdom,  and  became  intoxicated  with 
the  errors  of  selfishness.  Thus  the  second  state  of  the 
church  was  lost,  and  man  sunk  into  naturalism. 

Noah,  like  Adam,  ate  of  the  forbidden  tree — the  tree 
of  his  own  wisdom. 

Men  had  now  become  so  low  that  the  Lord  could  no 
longer  approach  them  and  teach  them  without  written 
laws  and  rules,  rites  and  ceremonies.  He  therefore  gave 
them  the  commandments  on  Mount  Sinai,  and  established 
the  church  or  the  peremptory  law  of  obedience.  This 
was  the  third  or  Jewish  church.  This  state  of  the  church 
was  symbolized  by  outward  religious  rites  and  ceremonies. 

It  was  simply  a  church  of  works,  in  which  men  were  to 
*  •>  i 

fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments.  Men  had  be- 
come entirely  natural ;  they  had  none  but  the  most  vague 
i'lcns  of  a  spiritual  world,  or  of  a  life  after  death.  They 
looked  only  for  temporal  rewards  and  punishments.  They 


THE    CHURCH.  269 

were  to  fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments.  All  their 
rites  and  ceremonies  were  in  true  correspondences.  And  so 
long  as  they  humbly  performed  them,  and  kept  the  com- 
mandments because  God  had  commanded  it,  they  received 
spiritual  life,  and  could  be  prepared  for  heaven.  But  in 
time  they  lost  their  reverence  and  respect  for  God  and 
His  laws,  and  kept  the  commandments  and  performed 
their  religious  ceremonies  entirely  from  selfish  motives. 
Thus  they  fell  into  the  lowest  state  of  perverted  human- 
ity. A  state  denoted  by  whited  sepulchres,  generation  of 
vipers,  stiffhecked  people,  scribes,  pharisees,  hypocrites. 

We  have  now  traced  the  decline  of  humanity  or  of  the 
church  from  its  highest  state  of  purity  and  innocence,  as  a 
garden  of  Eden,  down  to  its  lowest  state  of  sin  and  selfish- 
ness, as  an  unfruitful  wilderness ;  a  state  in  which  God 
could  no  longer  reach  men  without  assuming  their  nature. 
The  fall  was  now  completed  :  humanity  had  gone  down  to 
the  very  verge  of  complete  destruction.  Step  after  step  it 
had  declined,  and  the  merciful  Lord  had  followed  it,  until 
the  last  spark  of  life  was  about  to  expire. 

To  this  little  spark  the  Lord,  through  the  virgin  Mary, 
united  Himself,  wrapped  around  as  it  was  with  all  the 
depravity  of  the  race,  so  that,  in  the  assumed  nature, 
"  He  was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are."  Thus 
He  met  the  enemies  and  the  evils  of  humanity  on  their 
own  ground,  rescued  the  race  from  destruction*,  turned  the 
face  of  humanity  upward,  purified  and  glorified  the  as- 
sumed nature,  and  made  it  a  Divine  Mediator  or  Medium 
between  the  Father  within  and  the  wicked  world  without. 
And  through  the  power  of  His  Spirit,  proceeding  from 
His  Divine  Humanity,  He  established  the  Christian 
church,  and  gave  us  the  blessed  Gospel. 

Herein  He  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light ; 


270  THE   CHUKCH. 

taught  them  of  heaven  and  of  hell,  of  the  resurrection,  of 
the  judgment,  and  of  the  future  life. 

But  He  told  His  disciples  that  that  was  not  His  last 
dispensation ;  that  He  would  come  again  and  establish 
the  New  Jerusalem.  And  He  gave  them  the  Apocalypse, 
which  is  a  clear  and  distinct  prophecy  of  the  passing  away 
of  that  state  of  the  church,  and  of  the  coming  of  the  new  one. 

Now,  what  was  the  first  coming  of  the  Lord  ?,  It  was 
the  Divine  Truth  or  the  Word,  which*  "  was  in  the  begin- 
ning with  God,"  and  which  "  was  God,"  assuming  our  na- 
ture and  coming  thereby  into  the  minds  of  men.  It  was  the 
Divine  Truth  filled  with  the  Divine  Love,  spoken  from  the 
material  body  of  the  Lord,  and  also  from  the  written  Gospel. 

What  is  the  second  coming  of  the  Lord  ?  It  is  the 
same  Divine  Truth  filled  with  the  same  Divine  Love,  in 
its  spirit  and  life,  coining  through  the  written  Gospel  into 
the  minds  of  men. 

The  first  coming  was  to  the  lowest  possible  state  of 
mankind,  when  they  had  no  thought  of  anything  higher 
than  matter.  He  therefore  had  to  come  into  their  de- 
praved nature  and  in  a  material  body.  For  thus  only 
could  He  reach  their  low  state  ;  and  then  only  by  the  lite- 
ral sense  of  the  Word. 

But  now,  at  the  second  coming,  having  put  off  that 
material  body  and  everything  depraved,  He  comes  into 
the  minds  of  men,  as  the  Divine  Word,  not  only  in  the 
literal  sense,  but  also  in  its  spirit  and  its  life.  The  "  many 
things,"  therefore,  which  at  the  first  coming,  He  had  to 
say  to  His  disciples  that  they  could  not  bear,  He  now 
rcvr.-ils,  showing  us  "  plainly  of  the  Father." 

Thus  we  have  in  the  Holy  Word  an  account  of  the 
coming  of  the  Lord  to  establish  the  New  Jerusalem,  the 
last  and  highest  state  of  the  church,  the  crowning  dispen- 


THE   CHUKCH.  271 

sation  of  the  Holy  Word.  The  state  of  the  Christian 
world,  at  this  coming,  is  symbolically  and  prophetically 
described  in  the  24th  chapter  of  Matthew,  as  having 
passed  through  immense  tribulation ;  such  as  divisions, 
persecutions,  wars,  pestilences,  earthquakes,  and  famines, 
until  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness,  in  many  minds,  had  be- 
come darkened,  and  the  moon  of  faith  did  not  give  her 
light,  and  the  stars  of  true  knowledge  had  fallen  from 
their  mental  heaven  :  i.  e.,  until  they  were  in  doubts  and 
darkness  as  to  what  to  believe,  and  saw  not  the  bright 
truths  of  the  Word  which  they  needed.  And  who  can 
look  through  the  present  state  of  the  Christian  world,  in  all 
its  various  and  conflicting  aspects,  from  the  gross  Mormon- 
ism  of  ignorant  Joe  Smith,  up  to  the  views  of  learned 
doctors,  who  are  now  representing  the  Sacred  Word  of 
Light  and  Life  as  in  the  shades  of  error  and  contradiction 
— who,  I  say,  can  look  at  this  picture  and  not  see  this 
prophecy  being  fulfilled  ?  Well  may  our  Lord  have  said, 
"  Except  those  days  should  be  shortened,  there  should  no 
flesh  be  saved."  (Matt,  xxiv,  22.) 

In  this  condition  of  the  church  on  earth  it  is  declared 
that  there  should  be  seen  the  sign  of  the  coining  of  the 
Son  of  Man  ;  and  that  He  should  come  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  or  in  the  letter  of  the  Word,  as  seen  in  the  becloud- 
ed state  of  men's  minds — their  mental  heaven.  The  full 
description  of  this  final  church  is  given  in  the  Apocalypse, 
which  closes  the  canon  of  Scripture,  and  therefore  the  Di- 
vine history  of  the  church.  This  description  we  find  in 
the  21st  chapter  of  Revelation,  under  the  similitude  of  a 
Holy  City,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  pre- 
pared as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband. 

]S"ow,  what  is  this  Holy  City  ?  It  is  a  pure  system  of 
doctrines,  teaching  clearly  the  nature  and  character  of 


272  THE   CHURCH. 

God  and  His  laws  ;  and  of  man  and  all  his  duties.  The 
city  is  said  to  be  "  pure  gold,  like  unto  clear  glass,'1  be- 
cause the  doctrines  are  all  good  and  clearly  seen,  and 
make  us  rich  unto  salvation ;  gold  denoting  goodness  or 
hea-venly  riches,  and  clear  glass  meaning  truth  under- 
stood. A  city  is  a  beautiful  symbol  of  doctrines,  because 
it  is  used  for  the  indwelling,  comfort,  intercourse,  instruc- 
tion, protection,  support,  and  happiness  of  its  inhabitants. 
Here  they  perform  their  labor,  treasure  up  their  wealth, 
build  their  houses  and  churches,  attend  their  worship,  sell 
their  merchandise  from  man  to  man,  and  perform  the  du- 
ties of  this  life.  Thus  a  city,  in  order,  completely  repre- 
sents those  heavenly  doctrines,  or  rules  of  life,  through 
which  our  souls  may  be  brought  together,  to  dwell  in  mu- 
tual love,  use,  and  benefit,  accumulating  heavenly  riches, 
and,  as  we  need,  passing  from  soul  to  soul,  the  precious 
goods  and  truths  of  spiritual  life.  A  good  man  spiritually 
dwells  in  such  doctrines  of  the  Holy  Word,  as  he  naturally 
dwells  in  a  city. 

This  Holy  City  of  pure  gold,  like  unto  clear  glass,  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  Word  in  its  spiritual  light,  shining 
through  the  literal  sense.  It  is  said  to  have  twelve  foun- 
dations of  precious  stones.  Now,  what  are  these  founda- 
tions? They  arc  all  natural  truths.  All  natural  truths 
whatever,  whether  scientific,  civil,  or  religious,  are  the  ba- 
sis of  spiritual  truths.  When,  therefore,  from  the  spirit- 
ual light  of  the  Word,  are  clearly  presented  to  the  mind 
the  beautiful  doctrines  of  the  trinity,  atonement,  fall,  re- 
generation, resurrection,  judgment,  heaven,  and  hell, 
they  strike  the  natural  mind  as  true,  for  they  are  ra- 
tional and  consistent.  This  is  because  all  natural  truths 
are  in  harmony  with  spiritual  truths.  And  when  the 
natural  mind,  which  is  exercised  with  natural  truths,  is 


THE   CHURCH.  273 

open  to  the  reception  of  spiritual  truths,  those  spiritual 
truths  are  seen  through  the  natural  truths,  and  rest  upon 
them  as  a  foundation.  And  while  the  foundations  of  this 
city  are  natural  truths,  the  tight  of  the  city  is  Spiritual 
Truth.  There  is  "  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither  of  the 
moon,  to  shine  in  it :  for  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it, 
and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof."  The  spiritual  truth 
of  the  Holy  Word,  in  the  human  mind,  is  the  light  of  the 
doctrines,  the  glory  of  this  city. 

The  gates  of  the  city  are  introductory  truths,  denoted 
by  pearls.  Doctrines  are  things  for  the  understanding. 
And  to  see  the  inner  light  of  this  city — the  spiritual  light  of 
the  doctrines — we  must  pass  the  gates ;  that  is,  these  gates 
must  introduce  to  our  minds  the  spiritual  light.  What 
then  are  these  gates — these  introductory  truths  ?  They  are 
the  truths  of  analogy,  seen  by  correspondences.  They  are 
the  scientific  light  which  shows  the  relation  between  the 
book  of  nature  and  the  book  of  Revelation — between  the 
works  and  the  Word  of  God — between  the  literal  and  the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  Through  these 
gates  of  pearl  we  enter  understandingly  into  the  Holy 
City.  Pearls  denote  scientific  truths,  because  things 
of  the  sea  denote  scientifics.  There  are  twelve  of  these 
gates ;  three  on  each  of  the  four  sides  of  the  city ;  the 
East,  the  West,  the  North,  and  the  South.  By  the  num- 
ber 12,  which  denotes  perfect  fulness,  we  learn  that  these 
gates  comprise  all  analogical  truths  whatever ;  the  entire 
circle  of  the  science  of  correspondences. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  understand  all  this  science  in 
order  to  enter  this  city.  We  can  begin  to  enter  on  the 
East  side,  when  the  light  of  this  science,  like  that  of  the 
rising  sun,  first  feebly  strikes  us  ;  or  we  can  enter  on  the 
South  side,  when  we  have  a  full  blaze  of  the  light,  as  at 
12* 


274:  THE    CHUKCH. 

noon-day ;  or  we  can  enter  on  the  "West  side  when  we 
have  neglected  properly  to  use  the  light,  till  it  is  passing 
away ;  we  can  even  then  use  the  light  and  enter  the  city ; 
or  we  can  enter  on  the  Nortlj.  side,  where  the  light  is  dim 
and  the  feelings  cool.  Thus  we  can  enter  in  the  Spring 
of  life,  or  in  the  Summer  of  life,  or  in  the  Autumn,  or  in 
the  Winter.  The  gates  of  the  New  Jerusalem  are  never 
shut  to  man  while  he  lives.  And  whether  he  has  little 
light  or  much,  if  he  uses  the  light  he  has,  he  can  enter  the 
heavenly  abode. 

But  to  enter,  on  either  side,  we  must  pass  the  three 
gates.  These  three  gates  are  not  side  by  side,  but  one 
within  another,  and  united.  To  pass  one  or  two  will  do 
us  no  good,  unless  we  pass  the  third :  for  the  number  3, 
in  the  Word,  always  points  to  the  three  great  elements  of 
life — wisdom,  love,  and  power.  These  three  gates,  or 
classes  of  introductory  truths,  have  therefore  regard  to  our 
faith,  our  charity,  and  our  works.  When  the  spiritual 
light  of  the  Word,  by  the  law  of  analogy,  enters  our  mind, 
we  soon  begin  to  see  that  in  order  to  enter  this  city,  or 
love  these  doctrines,  we  must  feel  right  and  act  right,  as 
well  as  see  right :  that  our  heart  and  our  head  must  be  in 
the  work ;  that  faith  alone,  or  charity  alone,  or  works 
alone,  or  any  two  of  these  together,  will  never  bring  us 
within  the  Holy  City,  or  into  the  society  of  the  pure  and 
good.  We  must  have  goodness  as  well  as  truth,  and  we 
must  do  our  duty.  We  must  pass  the  three  gates. 

The  streets  of  this  city  are  the  common  paths  or  prin- 
ciples of  life,  wherein  we  meet  our  fellow  men  and  cany 
out  the  golden  rules  of  justice  and  mercy. 

The  form  of  this  city  is  symbolized  by  a  cube,  because 
forms  denote  qualities.  It  is  therefore  said  to  be  "  four- 
square ; "  the  length,  the  breadth,  and  the  height  of  it 


THE   CHURCH.  275 

being  equal.  Here  again  that  wonderful  number  3  comes 
in,  with  its  heavenly  instructions  ;  for  length  has  relation 
to  goodness  ;  breadth,  to  truth  ;  and  height,  to  use  ;  thus 
teaching  that  the  doctrines  are  as  good  as  they  are  true, 
and  as  useful  as  they  are  good  and  true.  And  here  also 
that  full  and  perfect  number  12  is  again  used,  to  define 
the  extent  and  quality  of  this  length,  breadth,  and  height 
of  doctrines ;  calling  them  each  12,000  furlongs ;  which 
means  that  they  comprise  all  goods,  truths,  and  uses ;  in- 
finite Love,  Wisdom,  and  Power  in  all  their  varieties  and 
their  fulness. 

This  city  or  doctrine  is  said  to  be  measured  by  an  an- 
gel with  a  golden  reed.  This  is  because,  by  measuring,  is 
meant  ascertaining  the  quality.  And  as  gold  denotes 
goodness,  and  reed,  truth,  so  we  are  taught  by  this  meas- 
uring, that  it  is  only  by  truth  from  good  through  angelic 
and  heavenly  influences,  that  we  can  know  the  divine 
quality  of  these  doctrines.  Now,  what,  in  the  letter  alone, 
seems  strange,  is,  that  though  this  city  is  declared  to  be 
12,000  furlongs  square,  yet  its  wall  is  said  to  be  the  meas- 
ure of  a  man ;  i.  e.,  of  an  angel.  But  this  is  because  a 
true  man  or  angel  loves  the  Holy  "Word,  and  is  filled  with 
these  doctrines ;  they  are  therefore  his  spiritual  measure 
or  quality. 

Now,  for  a  man  to  enter  this  city,  the  city  must  also 
enter  him.  And  we  are  taught  that  "  there  shall  in  no 
wise  enter  into  it  anything  that  defileth,  neither  whatso- 
ever worketh  abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie  ;  "  by  which 
we  are  taught  that,  though  we  may  have  these  doctrines 
in  our  understanding,  yet  we  can  receive  them  into  our 
affections  only  as  we  put  away  our  evils  ;  that  these  pure 
elements  will  not  mingle  with  falses  and  evils.  Who  then 
enters  the  Holy  City?  "He  that  overcometh."  What 


276  THE   CHURCH. 

does  he  find  there  ?  The  Tree  of  Life.  "  To  him  that 
overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  which  is 
in  the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  God,"  saith  our  Lord. 
Here  we  are  again,  with  the  Adamites  of  old,  in  the  para- 
dise of  God,  eating  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  in  the  midst  of  the 
garden  of  the  mind.  But  this  Tree  of  Life  is  here  men- 
tioned as  having  leaves  as  well  as  fruits-:  "  And  the  leaves 
of  the  tree  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations."  These 
leaves  are  the  scientific  truths  which  God  is  now  giving 
us — those  beautiful  truths  of  analogy  which  open  to  us 
the  Holy  Word,  and  clearly  show  us  the  origin  and  na- 
ture of  our  evils,  and  how  to  put  them  away  and  be 
healed.  There  wrere  no  healing  leaves  mentioned  upon 
the  first  Tree  of  Life,  for  there  was  then  nobody  sick.  All 
had  health  and  life ;  their  minds  were  open  to  truths  from 
the  Lord  by  intuitive  influx,  and  the  fruit  of  the  Tree  was 
all  that  they  needed. 

"We  have  now  taken  a  summary  view  of  the  five  dis- 
tinct features  of  the  church,  or  of  the  five  peculiarly 
marked  states  of  humanity,  in  the  spiritual  history  of  our 
race,  as  definitely  recorded  in  the  Word  of  Almighty 
God.  Let  us  now  glance,  for  a  moment,  at  the  remark- 
able order  of  the  succession  of  these  states  of  the  church 
in  the  fall  and  rise  of  humanity. 

In  the  first,  the  Adamic  state  of  the  church,  before  the 
fall,  we  have  the  innocent,  artless,  infantile  character  of 
the  race.  The  people  were  simple,  open,  sincere,  affec- 
tionate, and  true.  They  knew  and  felt  no  wrong.  The 
will  and  the  understanding  were  united.  The  will  prin- 
ciple, as  in  children,  ruled.  And  the  will  being  right, 
they  felt  right ;  and  therefore  they  saw  and  acted  right. 
Love  or  charity  was  the  first  and  dominant  element  in  this 
church  ;  they  did  right  because  they  felt  it  to  be  right. 


THE   CHURCH.  277 

But  in  the  second  state  of  the  church,  the  Noatic,  the 
will  was  depraved,  and  therefore  its  impulses  were  wrong. 
It  could  not  go  right  without  instruction  from  God.  They 
had  to  have  an  ark  or  doctrines.  The  will  and  the  un- 
derstanding were  separated.  Truth,  or  faith,  therefore, 
and  not  love,  was  the  first  and  dominant  element  in  this 
state  of  the  church  :  they  did  right  because  they  saw  it  to 
be  right ;  and  their  wills  had  to  submit  to  the  dictates  of 
the  Truth  of  their  faith  ;  they  had  to  enter  the  ark  and 
obey  the  doctrines. 

But  in  the  third,  or  Jewish  state  of  the  church,  the 
will  was  not  only  depraved,  but  the  understanding  was 
darkened,  so  that  they  could  neither  see  nor  feel  right. 
Therefore,  neither  love  nor  truth,  neither  charity  nor 
faith,  was,  with  them,  the  first  and  dominant  element,  but 
works  or  use.  They  did  right  simply  because  they  were 
commanded,  and  were  afraid  to  do  otherwise.  Here  we 
have  a  trine  in  the  states  of  the  church.  In  the  first,  charity 
ruled  ;  in  the  second,  faith  ruled,  and  in  the  third,  works 
ruled.  The  Lord  led  the  Adamic  church  by  charity,  the 
Noatic  church  by  faith,  and  the  Jewish  church  by  works. 

And  when  works  proved  inefficient,  and  man  lost  the 
love  of  obedience,  the  Lord  assumed  our  nature  and  estab- 
lished a  church  wherein  truth  led  to  goodness.  Faith  was 
the  first  or  leading  element  of  the  Christian  church,  with 
charity  as  its  life.  Thus  the  Lord  elevated  the  church 
from  the  plane  of  works  to  that  of  faith  or  truth  as  its 
guarding  principle,  still  retaining  the  works  and  charity. 
This  put  the  Christian  church  on  a  level  with  the  Noatic. 

But  the  province  of  the  New  Jerusalem  is  to  bring  the 
church  up  to  the  plane  of  the  Adamic,  when  love  will  be 
the  predominant  element,  retaining  faith  and  works. 

Thus  the  steps  up  the  mountain  are  the  same  as  the 


278  THE   CHURCH. 

steps  down  : — the  Adamic  church,  of  charity  ;  the  Noatic, 
of  faith ;  and  the  Jewish,  of  works :  and  then,  commen- 
cing at  the  bottom,  we  have  the  Jewish  church  of  works  ; 
the  Christian,  of  faith  ;  and  the  New  Jerusalem,  of  char- 
ity. Thus  we  see  that  chanty,  faith,  and  works  are  the 
three  great  elements  of  the  church,  embracing  the  Love, 
Wisdom,  and  Power  of  God  ;  and  that  no  church  can 
exist  without  them. 

When  love  or  charity  rules,  the  church  is  in  the 
highest  or  celestial  state ;  when  truth  or  faith  rules,  it  is 
in  the  spiritual  state  ;  and  when  use  or  works  rules,  it  is 
in  the  natural  state.  But  there  can  be  no  church  without 
works.  For  works  are  the  basis  and  continent  of  the  other 
elements.  If  Love  rules,  man  sees  the  truth  and  does  his 
duties  from  love  of  goodness.  If  Faith  rules,  it  works  by  love 
and  purifies  the  heart,  by  the  love  of  truth.  If  Works 
of  righteousness,  or  the  keeping  of  the  commandments 
in  the  reverence  and  fear  of  God,  rules,  it  has  the  letter 
of  the  Law,  which  brings  to  view  the  light  of  natural 
truth,  and  inspires  a  love  of  use. 

Now,  in  the  New  Jerusalem  state,  the  church  is  to 
possess  all  its  elements  in  their  true  order.  All  that  there 
ever  has  been  of  the  true  church  on  earth,  will  be  therein 
embodied.  For  nothing  of  the  church  has  ever  been  lost. 
The  Adamic  church  still  exists,  in  its  purity,  in  the  celes- 
tial heavens ;  the  Noatic,  in  the  spiritual  heavens ;  and 
the  Jewish,  in  the  natural  heavens.  The  real  fact  is,  that 
the  church  of  God  has  never  fallen.  It  has  been  the  peo- 
ple that  have  fallen  away  from  the  church ;  goodness, 
truth,  and  use  cannot  fall.  They  are  divine  and  eternal 
principles.  Thus  it  is  an  appearance  only,  that  the  church 
becomes  depraved  and  falls.  For  the  depravity  is  not  the 
church.  When,  therefore,  we  look  at  the  church,  in  its  di- 


THE   CHURCH.  279 

vided  elements,  we  can  see  that  there  has  been  only  one 
church  on  the  earth.  This  church  ha,s  existed  under  vari- 
ous states  and  dispensations,  developing,  in  man,  its  vari- 
ous qualities  and  uses.  Only  that  which  was  good,  true, 
and  useful,  in  the  people,  has  been  the  church.  Their 
falses  and  evils  have  been  something  else. 

The  church  commenced  with  the  creation  of  man. 
And,  by  means  of  it,  humanity  has  been  developed,  by 
Divine  influence,  from  its  infancy  to  its  manhood.  Thus, 
the  Adamic  state  was  the  church  in  its  infancy  ;  the  No- 
atic  state,  the  church  in  its  childhood ;  the  Jewish  state, 
the  church  in  its  youth ;  the  Christian  state,  the  church  in 
its  early  manhood ;  and  the  New  Jerusalem  state,  the 
church  in  its  age  and  maturity.  In  this  state  the  seals  of 
the  Holy  Word  are  loosed,  and  the  Book  is  opened  to  the 
minds  of  men,  and  their  minds  are  opened  to  the  Word ; 
and  men  learn,  from  God,  the  laws  of  the  spiritual  world, 
and  of  their  own  souls.  Herein  all  the  prophecies  of  the 
Word  are  fulfilled,  and  the  canons  of  Scripture  point  no 
further. 

This  is  then  the  full  and  crowning  state  of  the  church. 
Herein  humanity  is  to  be  restored  to  the  primeval  order 
of  the  race,  with  this  difference  :  then  it  was  as  an  inno- 
cent, inexperienced,  confiding  child,  loving  goodness  su- 
premely, knowing  no  sin,  and  seeing  intuitively,  by  the 
Lord's  Wisdom,  in  the  clear  light  of  analogy,  the  higher 
laws  of  creation  and  providence :  but  now,  it  is  to  be  as 
an  educated  man,  knowing  good  from  evil,  loving  su- 
premely the  good,  and  despising  the  evil ;  and  seeing  ra- 
tionally and  scientifically,  by  the  same  Divine  Wisdom, 
in  the  same  light  of  analogy,  the  same  higher  laws  of  crea- 
tion and  providence ;  and  then  loving  and  walking  in 
those  laws. 


280  THE    CHURCH. 

And  now  we  see  that  there  will  be  no  more  fall  of 
man.  For  men  fell  from  the  want  of  experience,  and  of  a 
knowledge  of  evil.  Now  the  appalling  consequences  of 
evil  are  before  the  eyes  of  all,  and  are  bitterly  experienced 
by  every  individual.  And  all  its  dreadful  qualities  are 
depicted  in  the  Holy  Word,  in  the  most  striking  colors'. 
And,  knowing  the  consequences,  the  world  of  mankind, 
when  restored  to  millennial  order,  will  no  more  fall  into 
sin.  Glorious  and  happy  day,  when  all  shall  know  the 
Lord,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  when  every  knee  shall 
bow,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
Lord  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

HEAVEN  AND  HELL. 

( 

THE  few  ideas  which  we  shall  advance  upon  the  sub- 
ject which  has  agitated  the  Christian  world  more  than 
all  others,  will  be  drawn  from  the  truths  and  facts  which 
God  has  given  us  all  in  common,  both  in  His  Word  and 
in  His  works.  From  them,  and  the  history  and  experi- 
ence which  men  of  observation  have  had,  of  human  na- 
ture, we  may  learn  much  about  heaven  and  hell.  In- 
deed, men,  in  this  world,  see  and  know  a  great  deal  more 
about  heaven  and  hell  than  they  may  suppose  they  do. 
Few  pass  through  this  life,  without  having  much  bitter 
experience  in  things  pertaining  to  hell ;  or  without  see- 
ing many  things  that  may  give  them  rational  lessons  of 
heaven. 

But,  in  order  properly  to  investigate  the  subject  before 
us,  we  must  have  just  views  of  the  nature  and  character 
of  the  Divine  Being,  as  expressed  in  Chapter  II.  We 
must  see  something  of  the  heavenly  quality  and  light  of 
His  mind  ;  and  we  must  make  that  truth  the  touchstone, 
by  which  to  decide  every  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Word. 
For  the  Lord  is  the  truth  of  the  Word,  and  the  light  of  its 
doctrines.  We  must  see  that  God  is  love,  goodness, 


HEAVEN   AND   HELL. 

mercy,  wisdom,  truth,  purity,  virtue,  and  every  possible  ex- 
cellence, in  full  infinitude  ;  and  that  His  sphere  is  heaven  : 
that  He  is  the  very  light,  and  life,  and  peace,  and  joy, 
and  happiness  of  heaven  ;  and  that  everything  opposite  in 
character  to  His  sphere  and  qualities,  is  hell.  Now, 
heaven,  with  men,  is  a  state  of  happiness,  peace,  and  joy, 
resulting  from  the  true  love  and  possession  of  these  divine 
qualities.  And  hell  is  a  state  of  misery  and  unhappiness, 
springing  from  the  perversion  and  want  of  these  qualities, 
and  from  the  love  and  indulgence  of  their  opposites,  the 
origin  of  which  is  expressed  in  Chapter  III.  Therefore, 
with  the  history  of  human  nature  before  us,  and  the  light 
of  the  Holy  Word,  we  may  learn  a  great  deal  about 
heaven  and  hell.  And  the  knowledge  we  thus  gain  may 
be  depended  upon  ;  for  it  will  be  founded  in  facts,  and 
drawn  from  rational  and  scientific  deductions.  All  inves- 
tigations, philosophically  made,  in  the  light  of  divine 
truth,  lead  the  mind  to  rest  its  conclusions  upon  eternal 
verities.  There  is  nothing  uncertain  and  wavering  in 
the  divine  mind  ;  and  all  principles,  whether  good  or  evil, 
when  rationally  seen,  in  the  light  of  the  divine  mind,  are 
seen  as  they  are.  We  may  therefore  gain  a  much  better 
knowledge  of  what  heaven  and  hell  really  are,  in  them- 
selves, from  a  rational  knowledge  of  the  elements  and  in- 
fluences which  constitute  them,  than  we  could  from  a 
personal  observation  of  them  without  that  knowledge ; 
for,  in  the  latter  instance,  we  should  see  only  the  appear- 
ance of  things,  without  a  knowledge  either  of  the  things 
themselves,  or  of  the  causes  from  which  they  presented 
such  an  appearance. 

Besides,  appearances  there  as  well  as  here  must  depend, 
in  a  great  measure,  upon  the  spiritual  states  of  the  ob- 
servers. Hell  would  therefore  appear  much  less  revolting 


HEAVEN   AND    HELL.  283 

and  forbidding  to  some  minds  than  to  others  ;  and  heaven, 
much  less  inviting  and  pleasant.  Man's  true  ground, 
therefore,  for  a  knowledge  of  heaven  and  hell,  whether  lie 
be  a  resident  of  this  \vorld  or  of  the  other,  is  a  clear 
understanding  of  spiritual  things,  drawn  from  the  Holy 
Word  of  the  Most  High  God.  He  must  understand  the 
real  qualities  of  good  and  evil  minds,  and  the  laws  and 
impulses  by  which  their  movements  are  propelled  or  re- 
strained. Without  this  knowledge  of  the  principles  and 
elements  of  human  souls,  and  of  their  operations,  we 
should  understand  as  little  of  the  real  nature  and  meaning 
of  the  scenery  of  the  spiritual  world,  were  we  disem- 
bodied and  in  it,  as  the  ignorant  Hindoo  does  of  the  mo- 
tions of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

A  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  therefore,  and  of  His  Holy 
Word,  is  essentially  necessary  to  a  proper  understanding 
of  heaven  and  hell,  or  of  any  scenery  in  the  spiritual 
world.  Because  it  is  by  the  light  of  the  Holy  Word,  in 
the  understandings  of  men,  that  spiritual  things  are  seen 
and  understood  ;  and  furthermore,  because  the  light  of 
that  Word  is  the  only  true  light  of  the  spiritual  world, 
which  presents  things  as  they  really  are.  The  light  of  the 
spiritual  world  is  truth.  But  that  truth  strikes  the  eye 
of  each  mind  according  to  the  quality  and  sphere  of  the 
understanding.  To  minds  therefore  who  do  not  under- 
stand the  true  doctrines  and  light  of  the  Holy  Word, 
things  in  the  spiritual  world  are  not  seen  as  they  really 
are  in  themselves,  but  only  as  they  appear  to  be,  from  the 
states  of  those  who  see  them.  No  one,  therefore,  but  a 
good  person,  who  sees  the  light  of  the  Holy  Word,  and 
who  understands  it  and  loves  it,  could  give  us  any  true 
account  of  the  scenery  and  things  in  the  spiritual  world, 
or  of  heaven  and  hell,  were  he  to  come  from  thence,  and 


284  HEAVEN   AND   HELL. 

openly  converse  with  us  ;  because  he  would  have  no  true 
knowledge  himself  of  what  he  had  seen. 

Everything  in  the  spiritual  world  appears  according  to 
the  quality  of  the  eye  which  gees,  and  the  character  of  the 
light  which  reflects  it.  And  the  light  of  the  spiritual 
world  is  of  all  shades  from  truth  to  falsity.  The  light  of 
heaven  is  truth,  and  the  light  of  hell  is  falsity.  Are  we 
asked  how  we  know  these  things  ?  We  answer,  because 
the  spiritual  world  is  a  world  of  inhid ;  the  eyes  which 
see  in  that  world  are  the  understandings  of  men ;  and 
the  proper  light  for  the  understanding  is  truth  ;  and  un- 
derstandings are  of  all  characters  and  qualities — some  see- 
ing in  false  light  and  some  in  true.  And  though  falsity 
is  darkness  to  the  true  understanding,  yet  it  is  as  light  to 
the  perverted  mind.  But  lest  this  answer  should  not  sat- 
isfy the  inquirer,  we  say  further,  that  this  is  the  law  of 
mental  seeing,  even  of  persons  in  this  world.  If  we  pre- 
sent the  truth  to  a  mind  who  views  the  subject  in  a  false 
light  and  loves  that  false  light,  we  cannot  make  him  see 
the  truth.  It  is  as  darkness  to  him.  It  requires  much 
clear  argument  and  practical  illustration  to  convince  a 
man,  confirmed  in  error  from  false  education  and  evil 
loves,  that  his  views  are  false.  Such  a  mind,  with  over- 
whelming testimony,  even  while  in  an  inquiring  state, 
could  see  the  truth  but  dimly,  at  first,  and  could  only 
gain  a  clear  view  by  yielding  to  its  teachings,  in  op- 
position to  his  evil  loves,  and  pursuing  a  new  course 
of  life. 

Thus  our  chief  dependence  for  a  knowledge  of  heaven 
and  hell  is  the  Word  of  God,  and  a  rational  view,  by  its 
light,  of  the  character  of  our  Heavenly  Father  and  of  hu- 
man nature  in  its  lights  and  shades.  And  from  the  truths 
and  facts  which  we  have  before  us,  on  this  subject,  we 


HEAVEN    AND    HELL.  285 

may  rationally  inquire  into  what  must  be  the  nature  and 
character  of  heaven  and  hell  in  the  next  life. 

'The  first  questions  that  naturally  arise,  on  the  subject, 
are,  where  is  the  spiritual  world  ?  and,  how  does  it  differ 
from  this  ?  The  spiritual  world  is  a  world  of  mind  ;  and 
therefore  wherever  there  is  a  human  mind,  there  is  the 
spiritual  world,  whether  that  mind  be  in  a  body  of  flesh 
or  not.  The  spiritual  world  can  be  no  more  separated 
from  the  material  world,  than  cause  can  be  separated  from 
effect.  Nor  could  one  world  exist  without  the  other  any 
more  than  cause  could  exist  without  effect,  or  effect  with- 
out a  cause.  Wherever  there  is  matter  there  is  life  of 
some  quality ;  and  that  life  is  spiritual  substance,  and  is 
a  part  of  the  spiritual  world.  But  spiritual  substances, 
like  material,  are  of  infinite  varieties  and  organizations. 
There  are  the  spiritual  brain,  eye,  ear,  heart,  lungs,  hand, 
foot ;  each  of  a  different  quality  and  organization,  and  all 
filled  with  life  from  the  Lord,  which  is  a  higher  quality 
of  substance  still.  And  the  spiritual  world  is  not  only 
the  cause  of  the  material,  but  it  is  ever  with  it,  organizing 
and  moulding  all  its  forms. 

In  the  phrase  spiritual  world  are  embraced  all  spirit- 
ual substances,  of  every  quality,  infinite  and  finite,  good 
and  true,  evil  and  false.  Everything  good  and  true,  in 
that  world,  constitutes  heaven ;  and  everything  evil  and 
false  constitutes  hell.  Where,  then,  shall  we  look  for  the 
spiritual  world  ?  Shall  we  look  into  open  space  for  it  ? 
What  is  there  there?  The  largest  telescopes  show  us 
nothing  but  material  bodies.  Where  is  heaven  ?  On  one 
of  the  stars  ?  Some  have  located  it  in  the  realms  of  space, 
beyond  the  planetary  systems,  nobody  knows  where. 
And  where  is  hell  ?  Some  have  located  it  in  the  sun, 
some  in  the  earth,  and  some  in  space  unknown.  But  such 


286  HEAVEN    AND    HELL. 

speculations  are  all  drawn  from  the  wild  imaginations  of 
the  natural  mind,  for  the  want  of  the  spiritual  light  of  the 
Word.  For  we  need  not  go  out  of  ourselves,  and  the 
community  in  which  we  live,  to  find  the  spiritual  world, 
and  heaven  and  hell.  Our  bodies  are  in  the  natural 
world,  and  our  souls  in  the  spiritual.  But  our  external 
minds  are  so  much  in  the  love  of  the  world,  and  are  so 
natural,  that  our  natural  bodies  serve  as  a  screen  to  pre- 
vent our  spiritual  bodies  and  senses  from  being  open  to 
the  world  to  which  they  belong. 

"While,  therefore,  we  are  in  the  natural  body,  and  in 
the  love  of  self  and  the  w&rld,  it  is  much  better  that  the 
spiritual  world  should  be  shut  from  our  view.  For,  in 
such  a  state  of  mind,  we  should  not  understand  it,  if  we 
saw  it.  It  would  appear  to  us  according  to  our  states  of 
mind,  and  not  as  it  is  in  itself.  We  should  have  false 
views  of  it,  and  should  express  those  views  to  others,  and 
thus  evil,  instead  of  good,  would  be  the  result  of  tbe  intro- 
mission. 

Now,  heaven  and  hell  are  not  places,  but  states  of 
mind.  "  The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observa- 
tion : "  is  not  "  Lo  here  !  or,  lo  there  !  for,  behold,  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  And  the  apostle  James 
says,  u  The  tongue  is  an  unruly  member,  and  it  setteth  on 
fire  the  course  of  nature,  and  it  sets  it  on  fire  of  hell." 
Thus  the  tongue,  by  slander,  may  make  a  natural  man 
angry,  and  thus  set  him  on  fire  of  hell.  So  we  are  taught 
that  hell,  as  well  as  heaven,  is  within  the  human  heart, 
even  while  the  man  may  be  living  in  this  world.  In- 
deed, heaven  is  in  the  souls  of  all  good  persons,  whether 
they  live  in  this  world  or  the  other.  And  hell  is  in  the 
souls  of  all  bad  ones.  The  fires  of  hell  are  anger,  hatred, 
revenge  and  malice  ;  and  they  sometimes  burn  with  great 


HEAVEN   AND   HELL.  287 

rage  against  their  victims.  Heaven  also  has  its  fires,  but 
they  are  the  glowing  affections  of  love,  friendship,  mercy 
and  kindness. 

The  society  of  those  who  have  heaven  within  them, 
constitutes  heaven  as  a  community.  And  that  society 
extends,  in  its  relations,  to  the  souls  of  the  good,  in  both 
worlds.  And  so  the  community  of  hell  extends  to  all,  in 
both  worlds,  whose  ruling  love  is  the  love  of  evil  and  self. 

When,  therefore,  a  person  puts  off  the  material  body, 
he  finds  himself,  at  once,  in  the  spiritual  world,  without 
going  anywhere.  He  was  there  before  ;  but  his  body  pre- 
vented his  being  sensible  of  it.  And  as  the  light  of  that 
world  now  strikes  the  eye  of  his  understanding,  he  decides 
what  his  heart  loves  most,  rejecting  the  things  adhering 
to  him  which  are  not  in  accordance  with  his  ruling  love, 
and  choosing  the  society  most  like  his  own  heart,  whether 
it  be  of  heaven  or  of  hell.  This  examination,  through 
which  he  passes,  by  the  light  of  truth,  thus  operating 
upon  his  own  mind,  is  the  judgment.  As  he  puts  off  the 
natural  body  and  comes  into  spiritual  light,  he  sees  the 
things  of  the  spiritual  world  according  to  his  state.  And 
if  his  ruling  love  is  the  love  of  evil,  he  sees  things  not  as 
they  really  are,  but  only  as  they  appear  to  him  to  be. 
His  state  falsifies  the  light,  and  evil  looks  to  him  as  good ; 
and  he  chooses  to  retain  his  evils,  and  to  have  the  society 
of  the  bad.  And  the  same  man  falsified  the  truth  while 
he  was  in  this  world.  '  The  truth  undertook  to  show  him 
the  evil  of  stealing,  lying,  adultery  and  covetous  ness  ;  but 
he  did  not  see  the  evil,  as  it  was.  The  results  of  these 
vices  looked  good  to  him,  and  he  sought  them.  And 
putting  off  the  body  did  not  change  the  affections  of  the 
soul.  His  only  sure  way  of  salvation  was  to  change  his 
ruling  love,  while  in  this  world  by  resisting  temptations 


HEAVEN   AND    HELL. 

and  living  a  godly  life,  till  his  soul  loved  good  and  loathed 
evil. 

But  when  "the  person  whose  ruling  love  is  the  love  of 
good  puts  off  the  material  body,  and  the  light  of  the  spir- 
itual world  strikes  the  eye  of  his  understanding,  he  sees  it 
as  truth,  and  it  shows  him  the  things  of  the  spiritual 
world  as  they  are  ;  he  sees  his  remaining  evils  as  bad,  and 
loathes  and  rejects  them ;  and  he  goes  with  his  like. 
And  this  he  had  been  practising  in  this  world ;  and  his 
spiritual  eye  was  prepared  for  the  light. 

The  punishment  which  the  wicked  receive  is  none  of 
God's  inflicting.  He  could  not  put  evil  into  the  human 
heart ;  and  evil  in  the  heart  is  the  hell,  and  the  cause  of 
all  the  suffering.  It  is  a  hell  of  man's  own  making  and 
choosing.  .  But  we  are  still  asked  How  we  know  that 
the  spiritual  world  is  here  in  our  midst,  while  we  live  in 
this  world  ?  We  answer,  the  Holy  Word  teaches  it,  our 
reason  declares  it,  and  all  we  know  of  spiritual  things  con- 
firms it.  What  is  God  but  a  spirit  ?  and  where  is  He 
not  ?  And  yet,  where  He  is,  there  must  be  the  spiritual 
world.  And  what  are  angels  but  spirits  ?  And  yet  they 
are  declared  to  be  with  us.  And  where  angels  are,  there 
must  be  the  spiritual  world.  What  makes  the  trees  grow, 
the  animals  feel,  and  men  think  and  love,  but  life  from 
God  ?  And  what  is  life  but  spiritual  substance  ?  Then 
wherever  life  is,  there  is  the  spiritual  world. 

Is  not  heaven  here,  then?  Are  not  God  and  our 
guardian  angels  in  heaven  ?  And  yet  they  are  with 
us.  And  is  not  hell  here?  Are  not  evil  spirits  with 
men  ?  Do  we  not  behold  sad  pictures  of  their  evil  opera- 
tions, upon  the  hearts  of  men,  all  around  us  ?  and  do  we 
not  feel  their  deceptive  influence  on  our  own  hearts  ? 
And  yet,  evil  spirits  are  all  in  hell.  But  are  hell  an«l 


HEAVEN    AND    HELL.  289 

heaven  together  then  ?  No.  For  there  is  a  "  great  gulf" 
between  them.  Not  a  gulf  as  to  space,  but  as  to  quality. 
Similarity  of  views  and  feelings  brings  souls  together; 
dissimilarity  separates  them.  Those  the  most  like  God 
are,  apparently,  the  nearest  to  Him  :  those  the  most  un- 
like Him  are  the  farthest  from  Him.  And  yet  he  is  omni- 
present. It  is  the  quality  of  the  heart  that  makes  the  dis- 
tinction. 

But  how  can  men,  in  this  world,  have  something  of 
heaven  and  hell  in  the  same  mind,  and  have  their  angels 
and  evil  spirits  around  them,  and  still  heaven  and  hell  not 
be  together  ?  The  spiritual  world  is  entirely  above  the 
measurements  and  reckonings  which  we  give  to  time  and 
space.  A  person  who  is  being  regenerated  has  something 
of  both  heaven  and  hell  in  him.  But  there  is  a  great 
gulf  between  them.  The  heaven  is  forming  in  the  inter- 
nal mind,  and  the  angels  are  guarding  it ;  while  hell  still 
adheres  to  the  external  mind,  and  the  devils  are  tempting 
it.  But  there  is  a  great  gulf  between  these  angels  and 
devils,  and  between  the  internal  mind  and  external  mind. 
They  are  unlike,  and  in  warfare,  and  the  two  minds  can 
come  together,  only  as  the  evils  are  removed. 

Heaven  and  hell  have  each  their  various  societies  in 
the  spiritual  world  ;  those  coming  together,  in  each  king- 
dom, according  to  their  states,  desires,  and  habits.  And 
they  have  their  distinct  governments.  Heaven  is  gov- 
erned by  love,  and  hell  by  fear.  We  know  this  from  the 
wTay  human  nature  is  governed  in  this  world.  The  good 
here  are  governed  by  love — the  love  of  the  law,  love  of 
order,  love  of  virtue,  the  love  of  the  neighbor.  But  the 
bad  are  governed  by  fear — fear  of  the  law,  fear  of  punish- 
ment. We  know  it  also  from  the  teachings  of  the  Holy 
Word  ;  for  it  speaks  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  king- 
13 


290 


HEAVEN    AND    HELL. 


doin  of  Satan ;  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  the  king- 
dom of  hell.  And  it  assures  us  that  God  reigneth  over 
all — the  evil  and  the  good  :  that  is,  He  holds  the  hells  in 
check  by  fear,  and  the  heavens  He  leads  by  love. 

The  commandments  of  the  Word  are  the  laws  for  the 
government  of  heaven  and  of  hell,  in  both  this  world  and 
the  other.  No  human  beings  could  exist  without  some  light 
from  the  Word,  received  either  by  tradition,  or  otherwise, 
giving  them  some  ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  in  some  degree 
of  light ;  for  the  human  understanding  must  have  it,  or 
man  must  cease  to  be.  And  were  a  tribe  of  our  race  to 
become  so  low,  on  earth,  as  to  lose  all  truth,  of  every  de- 
gree, they  would  become  extinct.  It  is  true  that  the  men 
of  evil  hearts,  both  in  this  world  and  the  other,  pervert 
the  truths  of  the  Word,  when  applied  to  their  own  evils ; 
but  they  see  their  use,  as  applied  to  the  evils  of  others, 
for  the  preservation  of  order  and  safety.  Therefore,  the 
hells  of  either  world  are  governed  and  made  tolerable,  by 
the  divine  laws  of  truth  and  duty ;  but  with  this  differ- 
ence,— the  heart  here  is.  masked  ;  and  men  sin  under  the 
hope  of  escaping  the  evil  of  punishment  by  deception.  But 
there  the  mask  is  thrown  off,  and  the  guilt  of  the  trans- 
gressor is  seen  at  once  ;  and  the  punishment  is  rigidly  in- 
ilicted.  This  is  a  necessity ;  because,  without  it,  exist- 
ence itself,  in  the  hells,  would  be  intolerable. 

Societies  of  free,  rational  beings,  with  nothing  true  and 
good  but  what  is  given  them,  must  necessarily  need  a 
law,  from  their  Creator,  to  govern  their  conduct.  And 
for  this  good  reason,  laws  have  been  given.  And  when 
those  laws  are  broken,  either  in  this  world  or  the  other, 
men,  and  not  God,  inflict  the  outward  punishment; 
while  there  is  still  the  unhappiness  of  the  soul  within, 
resulting  from  the  wicked  state  of  the  heart.  All  this 


HEAVEN    AND   HELL.  291 

light  may  be  seen  from  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  Word, 
and  -a  knowledge  of  human  nature. 

Now,  suppose  all  the  people  of  the  earth  to  be,  in  one 
moment,  disembodied.  They  find  themselves  right  where 
they  are,  but  in  the  spiritual  world,  with  spiritual  bodies  : 
their  dispositions  unchanged  ;  God  the  same  kind  Father, 
but  no  more  seen  by  them,  on  their  entrance  there,  than  He 
is  here.  Now,  what  will  they  do  ?  Their  eyes  are  spirit- 
ual, and  the  light  of  that  world— the  divine  truth — strikes 
their  understandings  forcibly.  They  can  read  each  other's 
thoughts  and  feelings.  They  will  soon  know  what  hearts 
are  congenial  and  what  are  not.  And  they  will  separate 
into  societies  according  to  their  states  ;  and  establish  laws 
and  rules  of  conduct  for  the  good  of  the  community.  And 
those  laws,  after  a  few  experiments,  will  all  be  the  laws 
of  God :  for  they  will  find  that  they  cannot  safely  live 
under  any  other.  The  good  societies  will  want  no  other  : 
and  the  bad,  will  find  that  they  cannot  endure  life  under  any 
other.  Thus,  when  evil  persons  come  together,  in  the  spir- 
itual world,  each  in  the  love  of  self  and  the  love  of  domin- 
ion, they  do,  as  bad  men  of  intelligence  would  do  in  this 
world,  if  obliged  to  live  in  a  community  by  themselves. 
Put,  for  instance,  10,000  bad  men  and  women,  of  nearly 
equal  abilities,  on  a  solitary  island  which  readily  produces 
enough  for  all  their  physical  wants ;  and  let  them  hold 
the  island,  in  common,  as  their  home,  and  which  they 
cannot  leave.  Notwithstanding  the  blessings  of  their 
home,  it  will  be  all  bedlam  with  them,  at  once,  until  they 
have  established  a  government  and  rigidly  enforced  tV- 
laws.  Men  of  corrupt  hearts,  and  wise  only  in  sergei 
wisdom,  where  they  have  no  chance  to  take  undue  advan- 
tage without  suffering  the  consequence,  will  establish 
and  maintain  wholesome  laws,  from  selfish  policy's  sake. 


292  HEAVEN   AND   HELL. 

Such  is  the  government  of  hell ;  for  human  nature  is  the 
same,  under  the  same  circumstances,  whether  it  be  in  this 
world  or  the  other.  And  though  their  hearts  may  burn 
with  anger,  jealousy  and  malice  toward  each  other,  yet 
they  will  soon  be  tired  of  indulging  their  revenge,  by 
wicked  acts,  from  the  sufferings  of  the  consequences ;  for 
all  the  penalties  of  transgression  are  there  promptly  in- 
flicted ;  and  spiritual  bodies  are  very  sensitive.  But 
against  men  in  the  flesh,  *in  leading  them  astray,  by  temp- 
tations and  deceptions,  they  are  united,  and  do  not  punish 
each  other  for  these  acts.  It  is  only  for  evils  done  to  one 
another,  that  they  inflict  punishment. 

Such  is  the  character  of  heaven  and  hell.  Heaven,  a 
community  of  good  men,  filled  with  good  principles  ;  and 
hell,  a  collection  of  bad  men,  filled  with  bad  principles. 
God  is  equally  good  to  all,  giving  to  the  heavens  every- 
thing they  enjoy  ;  and  mercifully  withholding  the  hells, 
through  the  fear  of  the  law,  from  falling  into  more  dire- 
ful sufferings  and  destructive  torments ;  so  that  they  are 
not  in  what  they  themselves  call  misery,  if  they  obey  the 
laws.  Yet  the  states  of  their  selfish  and  revengeful  hearty 
when  compared  with  those  filled  with  love,  gentleness, 
mercy  and  peace,  are  as  hell  to  heaven,  as  darkness  to 
light,  as  misery  to  happiness.  And  the  Lord  is  now 
clearly  opening  the  way  by  which  we  may  escape  the 
miseries  of  the  one,  and  enjoy  the  happiness  of  the  other. 
"  If  ye  would  enter  into  life  keep  the  commandments," 
and  seek  the  love  of  God  and  the  neighbor  :  for  "  God  is 
love.  And  he  that  loveth  is  born  of  God,  and  knowcth 
God.  He  that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not  God,  for  God  is 
love." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  NEW  BIBTH. 

u  Ye  must  be  born  again." — JOHN  in,  7. 

"  YE  must  be  born  again."  Thus  saith  the  Lord  to 
man.  But  what  does  He  mean  ?  I  hear  it  said,  that  He 
means  that  we  must  be  regenerated.  Very  true ;  but 
what  is  that  ?  It  is  to  give  ourselves  up  to  God,  by  faith, 
and  thus  be  born  of  the  Spirit.  That  is  true  ;  but  wrhat  is 
that  ?  It  is  to  be  made  His  children,  by  conversion, 
adoption  and  sanctification.  All  true  :  but  what  is  that  ? 
It  is  to  believe  in  the  Lord,  repent  of  our  sins  and  be  for- 
given. All  these  answers  are  true  ;  but  a  dense  mystery 
still  hangs  over  the  subject,  because  they  all  fail  to  tell 
what  these  very  things  are  in  themselves.  They  do  not 
give  any  distinct  idea  of  what  the  new  birth  really  is, 
or  regeneration,  or  conversion,  or  faith,  or  justification, 
or  pardon,  or  adoption,  or  sanctification,  or  repentance ; 
and  therefore,  though  the  answers  are  all  true,  as  far  as 
they  go,  yet  they  are  all  incomplete,  need  explanation, 
and  therefore  fail  to  give  the  light  needed ;  and  conse- 
quently, often,  by  a  wrong  view  of  terms,  they  involve 
the  subject  in  much  darkness. 

But  through  the  spiritual  light  of  the  Word,  the  mys- 
tery that  commonly  beclouds  all  these  terms  disappears, 


294:  THE   NEW    BIRTH. 

and  a  clear,  harmonizing  light  beams  through  them  all, 
blending  its  rays  in  perfect  symmetry  and  beauty.  For, 
in  that  light,  they  all  exhibit  a  plain,  practical  process  of 
purification  and  development,  pointing  out  rationally  the 
true  way  of  life,  and  convincing  us  that  we  must  walk  in 
it,  or  never  experience  the  new  birth. 

Now,  the  new  birth  is  a  subject  which,  at  times,  has 
greatly  agitated  the  human  family.  If  we  cast  pur  eyes 
back,  but  five  years,  at  the  history  of  JNew  York,  we  find 
it  agitated  throughout  its  length  and  breadth,  upon  this 
vital  subject.  Persons  of  all  ranks  and  conditions  were 
assembling  on  week  days,  in  crowds,  at  prayer  meetings, 
with  anxious  hopes  of  being,  thereby,  born  again.  And 
thousands,  per  week,  were  reported  in  the  common  news- 
papers, to  be  converted  to  God,  and  born  of  the  Spirit. 
But  much  mystery  overshadowed  the  entire  scene  ;  and 
many  of  its  supposed  converts  now  look  back  with  wonder 
and  ask  what  it  all  meant.  And  the  spiritual  light  of  the 
Word  only  can  answer  them.  The  occasion  needed  light. 
It  needed  knowledge  commensurate  with  its  zeal.  It  is 
good  for  men  to  feel  that  they  are  sinners,  and  to  believe 
that  they  must  be  born  again,  or  be  lost  to  heaven  ;  and 
to  pray  that  they  may  be  regenerated.  But,  to  really  ob- 
tain the  blessing,  they  must  perceive  something  of  what 
the  things  which  they  need  are,  in  themselves  ;  and  also 
of  the  process  they  must  pass  through,  in  order  to  obtain 
them.  It  is  not  a  work  in  the  dark. 

Now,  the  new  birth  is  a  matter  of  the  highest  possible 
moment  to  man.  It  is  the  great  object  of  our  existence. 
And  it  may  well  engage  the  attention  of  every  human 
being  when  the  great  Jehovah  says,  "  Ye  must  le  lorn- 
again"  For  what  God  says  to  us  is,  above  all  pr 
valuable.  But  what  does  He  mean  by  "  ye,"  when  He 


THE   NEW   BIRTH.  295 

says,  "  Ye  must  be  born  again  "  ?  He  means  the  mind. 
The  text  has  no  reference  whatever  to  the  body,  in  either 
birth.  Ye  means  the  spiritual  part,  not  the  tabernacle 
we  live  in. 

The  first  birth  of  the  mind  is  natural.  It  is  the  exter- 
nal mind  that  is  then  born.  It  is  born  into  a  knowledge 
of  natural  things  ;  and  it  learns  them  from  without.  All 
its  affections  and  thoughts  are  exercised  in  this  natural 
world,  and  upon  natural  relations  and  things.  It  has  no 
love  for  anything  higher.  The  only  avenues  to  knowl- 
edge, for  this  external  mind,  are  the  five  senses.  And  it 
is  through  them,  as  a  means,  that  the  natural  mind  is  born 
or  formed.  This  birth  of  the  mind  is  necessary,  before 
we  can  have  any  higher  knowledge.  "  First  that  which 
is  natural,  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual."  There 
must  be  a  natural  vessel,  as  a  receptacle  of  the  spirit — a 
natural  basis  for  the  spiritual  to  rest  upon.  No  matter 
how  virtuous  and  correct  the  first  birth  of  the  mind  may 
be,  a  new  birth  is,  nevertheless,  necessary,  because  we 
are  designed  for  a  higher  mode  of  life.  We  must  have 
thoughts  and  feelings  for  things  higher  than  natural, 
earthly  things  ;  and  the  mind  must  be  born  into  them. 

Had  man  never  fallen,  the  new  birth  would  have  been 
still  necessary.  The  Bible  commences  by  giving  an  ac- 
count of  the  new  birth  of  man,  before  he  had  fallen.  God 
had  brought  mankind  into  existence,  and  they  had  grown 
up  to  years  of  understanding,  simple,  good  and  happy, 
natural  people ;  the  external  mind  was  born  only  into 
natural  knowledge.  The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  a  his- 
tory of  man's  new  birth  into  spiritual  things.  But  in  our 
fallen  state,  the  natural  mind  is  selfish  and  depraved ; 
which  makes  it  necessary  to  be  born  again,,  in  order  to 
enjoy  true  happiness,  even  here. 


296  THE   NEW   BIRTH. 

The  first  birth  of  the  mind  is  natural ;  being  born  into 
a  knowledge  of  natural  things.  The  second  birth  is  spir- 
itual ;  being  born  into  a  knowledge  of  spiritual  things- 
things  of  the  soul,  of  God,  of  truth,  of  goodness,  of  heaven, 
of  happiness  ;  and,  by  this  new  birth,  are  engendered  and 
brought  forth  thoughts  and  affections  for  these  higher 
things.  And  when  this  new  birth  is  well  advanced,  these 
spiritual  thoughts  and  affections  for  heavenly  things  will 
have  the  ascendency  over  the  natural  mind ;  and  will 
completely  modify,  change,  govern,  and  infill  with  heav- 
enly love  and  truth,  all  the  natural  feelings  and  thoughts  ; 
so  that  the  whole  mind  will  be  new  and  heavenly. 

But  what  is  this  new  birth,  in  itself;  and  how  is  it 
accomplished  ?  Let  us  examine  into  it.  There  is  a  birth 
of  the  material  body.  That  is  first  born  an  infant's  body ; 
afterward,  a  child's ;  next,  a  youth's  ;  and  finally,  a  man's. 
During  this  process,  there  is  gradually  born  into  exist- 
ence the  external  or  natural  mind.  But  here  we  are 
asked,  why  we  speak  of  birth  as  a  gradual  work  ?  We 
answer,  because  birth  is  a  creation  ;  and  all  creations  are 
gradual.  Everything  that  is  made  is  born  into  existence  ; 
and  gradually  born.  Is  the  mind  of  the  man  born  when 
the  body  of  the  infant  is  brought  into  being  ?  "What  is 
birth  ?  "We  must  understand  terms,  or  we  cannot  profit 
by  study.  Birth  is  the  production  of  something.  Now, 
whether  that  something  be  one  hour,  or  a  hundred  years 
in  being  produced,  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  birth.  The  arrow, 
in  Virgil,  is  called  the  son  of  the  bow  ;  this  is  because  the 
bow  gives  birth  to  it  when  it  is  shot.  This  is  a  very 
quick  birth.  The  tree  gives  birth  to  the  apple  ;  but  it  is 
the  whole  season  about  it.  Washington  is  called  the 
father  of  his  country  ;  which  means  that  he  gave  birth  to 
our  freedom  from  foreign  oppression  ;  but  he  was  seven 


THE   NEW   BIETH.  297 

years  about  it.  A  man  at  threescore  and  ten,  gives  birth 
to  a  diary  of  his  life  ;  but  he  was  seventy  years  in  doing  it. 
He  dies  at  a  hundred  years  of  age  and  goes  to  heaven, 
and  this  mode  of  life  lias  given  birth  to  an  angel  ;  but  it 
was  a  whole  century  about  it.  The  sun  has  been  giving 
birth  to  light  ever  since  it  was  placed  in  the  heavens  ;  but 
that  birth  is  not  yet  completed.  The  orator  gives  birth 
to  his  oration,  the  author  to  his  book,  and  the  artist  to  his 
picture.  All  birth  is  progressive.  Every  development 
of  body  or  mind  is  birth. 

A  few  months  give  birth  to  the  body  of  an  infant ;  twenty 
years  more,  to  the  body  of  a  man.  But,  to  the  birth  of  a 
human  mind,  there  is  no  end.  It  is  capable  of  eternal  de- 
velopment. But,  to  have  that  development  orderly,  heav- 
enly and  happy,  it  must  be  born  again.  The  first  birth 
of  the  human  mind,  at  this  age  of  the  world,  is,  in  its 
tendencies,  natural,  selfish,  licentious,  deceitful  and  cruel. 
It  is  a  birth  into  the  love  of  self  and  the  world.  It  needs 
no  argument  to  prove  this.  Any  person,  with  an  eye 
half  open  to  his  own  heart,  and  to  the  community  around 
him,  knows  it.  And  he,  to  whom  these  bad  adjectives  do 
not  apply,  has  tasted  the  sweets  of  the  new  birth. 

We  said  that  the  first  birth  of  the  mind  is  natural, 
selfish,  licentious,  deceitful  and  cruel.  These  tendencies 
it  inherits  ;  and  if  it  be  not  born  again,  it  will  go  on  de- 
veloping, and  confirming  itself  in  all  these  evils  forever. 

The  second  birth  is  spiritual,  benevolent,  chaste^  truth- 
ful and  kind.  Both  of  these  births  are  progressive.  They 
commence  from  germs,  and  are  regularly  born.  How  little 
does  the  infant  of  a  day  old  know !  And  how  long  it 
takes  to  develop  and  give  birth  to  the  natural  mind,  in 
the  strength  and  energy  of  its  faculties. 

Now,  the  natural  mind,  as  we  said  above,  is  formed 
13* 


THE    NEW    BIRTH. 

by  means  of  things  from  without,  through  the  use  ojf  the 
senses.  There  is  no  mind  when  the  body  of  the  infant 
comes  into  the  world.  There  is  only  the  germ  of  a  mind. 
But  the  infant  begins  to  hear,  see,  feel,  smell  and  taste 
things  from  without.  And  through  these  operations, 
thoughts  and  feelings  begin  to  be  conceived  and  born  into 
action.  Thus  the  natural  mind  begins  to  be  born  forth 
into  actual  life.  And  every  new  thing  that  the  mind 
learns,  loves  and  acts  upon,  gives  a  further  birth  and  de- 
velopment to  that  mind.  But  as  this  natural  mind  is 
born  through  the  means  of  things  from  without,  by  the 
use  and  gratification  of  the  senses,  this  birth  must  of 
course  be  sensual  and  selfish,  because  it  comes  through 
the  means  of  wrhat  the  senses  love  ;  and  also  because  it  in- 
herits morbid  and  depraved  tendencies  from  parents. 
Therefore,  the  natural  mind  is  born  supremely,  into  the 
love  of  self  and  the  world.  All  its  knowledge  is  of  things 
of  the  world :  and  all  its  affections  are  for  or  against 
worldly  things. 

This  is  now  the  first  birth  of  all  minds  into  this  world. 
.Such  minds,  therefore,  will  certainly  quarrel  for  suprem- 
acy, in  power  and  property,  because  each  loves  himself 
above  all  others.  A  society  of  such  minds,  from  their 
very  nature,  cannot  make  a  heaven.  They  must  neces- 
sarily make  a  hell.  Therefore,  the  Lord  mercifully  says 
to  us,  "  Ye  must  be  born  again." 

Now  the  second  birth  is  a  birth  from  things  within,  or 
from  the  Lord  ;  and  not  through  the  senses  from  without, 
except  by  analogy  or  correspondence.  It  is  an  entirely 
new  mind  :  a  spiritual  mind — a  mind  that  looks  upward 
to  God,  and  not  downward  to  nature.  When  it  contem- 
plates nature,  it  looks  through  it,  up  to  nature's  God.  It 
is  a  mind  that  dwells  upon  goodness  and  truth,  virtue, 


THE   NEW   BIRTH.  299 

righteousness,  and  peace.  .This  mind  is  formed  within 
the  natural  mind ;  and  is  called,  in  Scripture,  the  internal 
or  spiritual  man ;  while  the  other  mind  is  called,  at  the 
same  time,  the  external  or  natural  man. 

ISTow,  this  spiritual  mind  is  as  gradually  conceived 
and  born  as  was  the  natural  mind.  First,  the  natural 
mind  is  progressively  born  and  developed  to  years  of 
understanding,  with  all  its  affections  and  proclivities  natu- 
ral and  worldly.  True,  while  it  has  been  taught  religious 
things,  and  how  to  distinguish  between  natural  right  and 
wrong,  the  Lord  has  prepared  within  it  some  good 
ground,  as  the  basis  of  a  higher  life ;  but  the  natural 
mind  neither  knows  nor  cares  much  about  these  internal 
preparations  for  a  spiritual  mind  and  life,  until  its  more 
matured,  rational  faculties  become  seriously  exercised,  by 
the  light  of  divine  truth.  But  when  man,  by  that  truth, 
becomes  convinced  that  the  natural,  selfish,  deceitful 
states  of  the  mind  of  mankind  are  the  real  cause  of  all 
the  crime,  sin  and  suffering  of  our  race,  he  becomes  se- 
riously alarmed  at  the  sad  picture.  And  as  he  yields  up 
his  mind,  in  humble  and  solicitous  contemplation,  he  be- 
comes rationally  and  feelingly  certain  that,  without  some 
change  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men,  there  can  never 
be  any  true  peace  or  happiness  for  the  race.  With  these 
stubborn  facts  before  him,  he  falls  into  a  state  of  serious 
trouble,  sorrow  and  solicitude  ;  and  he  prayerfully  desires, 
from  his  inmost  soul,  something  better  and  more  hopeful, 
for  mankind.  And  here,  in  this  humble  and  penitent 
condition,  he  conceives  a  desire  for  goodness  and  truth 
of  heart,  in  himself  and  all  others  ;  and  he  resolves,  daily, 
to  do  all  that  the  Lord  commands,  and  to  shun  every  vice 
as  sin.  And  now  as  he  follows  out  this  resolution,  in  de- 
pendence upon  the  Lord,  he  begins  to  feel,  in  the  con- 


300  THE   NEW   BIRTH. 

science-ground  of  his  soul,  the  warming  influence  of  love 
for  the  truth. 

Here  is  the  conception  and  commencement  of  the 
spiritual  mind.  The  truth  has  passed  from  the  under- 
standing into  the  good  ground,  which  the  Lord  had  pre- 
pared in  the  heart ;  and  here,  in  the  spiritual  region  of 
the  mind,  goodness  and  truth  have  met  together ;  and, 
from  their  embrace,  a  new  mind  is  beginning  to  be 
formed,  of  which  the  Lord  is  king.  '  This  new  mind  is 
spiritual,  pure  and  heavenly.  It  is  conceived  of  God,  or 
of  goodness  and  truth,  and  it  is  yet  to  be  born  of  God. 

But  how  is  it  to  be  born  ?  This  is  the  important  .point 
to  be'well  understood.  Here  is  the  germ  of  the  spiritual 
mind  within  the  very  centre  of  the  natural  mind.  The 
natural  mind,  with  all  its  selfishness  and  depravity,  sur- 
rounds it.  But  how  is  the  spiritual  mind  to  be  born? 
Or  what  is  the  spiritual  birth  which  this  man  is  yet  to  ex- 
perience ?  At  an  outward  glance,  it  is  simply  this : 
the  spiritual  mind  has  yet  to  be  born  out  into  the  natural 
mind,  and,  through  that,  manifest  itself  to  the  world.  It 
must  so  completely  infill,  or  fill  out,  the  whole  natural 
mind,  that  the  natural  mind  will  feel,  think  and  act, 
under  the  power  and  influence  of  the  spiritual  mind. 
And  the  whole  natural  mind  has  to  be  thus  renovated, 
changed,  and  cleansed,  as  the  spiritual  mind  is  born  into 
it.  But  this  can  take  place,  so  that  the  spiritual  mind  can 
get  this  perfect  possession  and  control  of  the  natural 
mind,  only  as  the  natural  mind  sees,  repents  of,  and  gives 
up  its  selfishness  and  depravity.  And  this  is  a  long  and 
laborious  work,  every  step  of  which  will  require,  of  the 
natural  mind,  faith  in  the  Lord,  resistance  of  temptation, 
and  obedience  to  the  commandments,  through  prayer  for 
aid  from  Almighty  God.  This  process  is  the  washing 


THE   NEW   BIRTH.  301 

of  regeneration,  or  the  cleansing  from  sin.  And  as  the 
natural  mind  is  cleansed,  the  spiritual  is  born  within  it. 
This  is  the  Christian  soldier's  warfare  against  the  kingdom 
of  Satan.  The  commencement  of  this  battle  is  the  com- 
mencement of  the  new  birth.  ,This  commencement  is 
conversion.  And  just  so  far  as  the  natural  mind  yields  to 
the  spiritual  mind  and  gives  up  its  selfishness,  in  obe- 
dience to  God's  commandments,  so  far  there  is  a  new 
birth.  Now,  just  so  far  as  there  is  a  new  birth,  so  far 
there  is  remission  of  sins  or  removal  of  evils.  So  tliat,  at 
conversion,  there  is  a  new  birth,  to  a  very  small  extent ; 
and  there  is,  also,  remission  of  sins,  or  cleansing  from 
evils,  to  the  same  extent. 

But  the  natural  mind  will  often  get  angry,  and  de- 
ceive, and  commit  other  sins,  after  the  new  birth  has  com- 
menced. And,  so  long  as  it  does  this,  its  sins  are  not  all 
remitted  or  removed  ;  nor  is  the  person  fully  born  again. 
For  "  he  that  is  born  of  God,"  the  apostle  says,  "  doth  not 
commit  sin  ;  for  the  seed  abideth  in  him,  and  he  cannot 
sin,  because  he  is  born  of  God."  The  idea  here  is,  that 
when  a  person  is  really  born  of  God,  when  he  has  given 
up  all  his  sins,  and  the  love  of  them,  and  has  come  to  the 
sabbath  of  rest,  he  has  no  desire  to  sin  ;  because  he  gives 
himself  constantly  to  God,  in  obedience. 

The  new  birth,  then,  springs  from  the  creation  of  the 
elements  of  a  new  mind  ;  of  new  and  heavenly  materials, 
within  the  natural  mind  ;  and  then,  through  the  gradual 
cleansing  of  the  natural  mind  from  everything  evil  and 
false,  the  two  minds  become  as  one — one  in  will,  one  in 
thought,  and  one  in  action.  "When  this  work  is  all  ac- 
complished, and  our  sins,  or  evil  and  selfish  inclinations, 
are  all  removed,  and  the  two  minds  are  in  harmony,  the 
new  birth  is  so  far  advanced  that  we  can  enter  the  heav- 


302  THE   NEW   BIETH. 

enly  society.  But  this  will,  by  no  means,  be  the  end  of 
that  spiritual  birth.  "When  the  natural  mind  becomes 
cleansed  from  all  its  sins,  so  that  it  acts  as  one  with  the 
spiritual  mind,  and  the  man  enters  heaven,  his  spiritual 
birth — his  new  creation — has  only  become  fairly  com- 
menced. It  has  now  but  reached  the  glorious  period  in 
its  progress,  when  it  can  be  clearly  and  rapidly  developed 
into  more  full  and  perfect  states  forever. 

Now  do  we  clearly  see  the  philosophy  of  this  new 
birth,  and  the  perfectly  harmonious  relation  which  this 
doctrine  bears  toward  all  the  other  doctrines  of  the 
Word,  and  their  complete  oneness  of  beauty  and  sym- 
metry, of  law  and  order  ?  Do  we  see  the  exact  coinci- 
dence between  the  spiritual  conception  and  birth  of 
the  Lord  up  to  his  glorification,- and  those  of  man  up  to 
his  regeneration ;  so  far  as  the  finite  can  coincide  with 
the  infinite  ?  Do  we  see  the  perfect  protection  and  action 
of  the  freedom  of  man,  and  the  distinct  preservation  of  his 
individual  identity,  throughout  the  whole  process ;  so 
that  when  he  comes  into  the  regenerate  state,  he  can  free!5r 
and  fully  enjoy  it,  to  his  soul's  delight  ?  Do  we  behold 
the  complete  correspondence  between  the  assumed,  exter- 
nal mind  of  the  Lord,  in  the  flesh,  to  be  glorified,  and  the 
depraved,  external  mind  of  'the  man  to  be  regenerated  ? 
Do  we  perceive  the  beautiful  similitude  between  the  glori- 
fication of  the  one,  and  the  regeneration  of  the  other  ( 
How  the  two  external  minds  were,  alike,  free  in  the 
work  ?  and  how  they  both  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the 
same  Divine  Spirit  within,  and  were  gradually  cleansed, 
and  brought  into  perfect  unity  and  harmony  with  the  in- 
ternal, or  higher  elements  of  their  being  ?  Do  we  see,  in 
both  instances,  the  seed  of  the  woman,  or  truth  from 
goodness,  bruising  the  serpent's  head  ;  and  thus  doing  UK 


THE  NEW   BIRTH.  303 

great  work  which  is  to  be  carried  on  till  the  human  race 
is  restored  to  heavenly  order  ?  Do  we  thus  see  how  the 
Lord  is  to  go  on  conquering  and  to  conquer,  until  every 
evil  be  subdued  ;  and  still,  in  all  things,  the  perfect  free- 
dom of  man  be  preserved  ?  Do  we  see,  philosophically,  how 
the  Lord  gained  this  great  power  over  the  evils  of  that 
humanity,  by  first  assuming  our  nature,  and  thus  coming 
into  contact  with  those  evils,  where  He  could  meet  them, 
and  all  the  hosts  of  hell,  on  their  own  ground,  and  in  their 
own  kingdom ;  and  there  effectually  conquer  them,  by 
reaching  the  rational  faculty  of  man  ;  and,  by  operating 
upon  his  judgment  by  the  truth,  incline  him,  in  perfect 
freedom,  to  see  his  evils  and  to  fight  against  them,  in  the 
power  of  the  spirit  of  truth,  in  dependence  upon  the 
Lor 61  ?  Do  we  here  see  the  great  work  of  the  atonement, 
which  the  Lord  commenced  in  Himself,  reconciling  the 
assumed  nature  to  the  divine ;  and  then,  continuing  the 
work  among  men  ?  "  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
unto  Himself?" 

"Whose  heart,  that  feels  the  truth  of  this  picture,  does 
not  glow  with  love  and  gratitude  to  that  merciful  Father 
who  thus  saves  the  world  in  freedom  by  coming,  like  a 
wise  schoolmaster,  down  into  our  midst ;  and  here  teach- 
ing us,  practically,  how  to  solve  the  problem  of  human 
nature — how  to  work  out,  understandingly,  every  appar- 
ently dark  and  intricate  question  of  our  spiritual  being ; 
always  presenting,  with  the  theory,  under  every  rule  of 
life,  a  bright  example,  accurately  worked  out  by  His  own 
wisdom,  in  a  nature  like  ours  ;  and  clearly  laid  down  and 
recorded,  in  the  great  chart  of  divinity  and  humanity — 
the  Holy  "Word  of  Jehovah? 

Do  we,  in  this  clear  system  of  harmonious  divinity, 
perceive  the  fogs  of  mystery  rising  and  passing  away  from 


304:  THE   NEW   BIKTH. 

every  doctrine,  and  behold  the  pure  light  of  the  holy  city 
— the  Lamb  of  God — the  spiritual  truth — beaming,  in 
blending  beauty,  through  every  part  ?  Do  we  see,  in  it 
all,  the  heavenly  embrace  of  science  and  religion,  of  na- 
ture and  revelation,  of  charity  and  faith,  of  love  and  obe- 
dience ?  Then,  indeed,  do  we  behold,  opening  up  to  our 
souls,  the  true  way  of  eternal  life,  in  a  manner  so  plain, 
and  in  a  light  so  clear,  that  we  cannot  mistake  it.  And 
having  this  light,  are  we  fully  aware  of  the  responsibility 
under  which  it  lays  us  ? 

God,  in  these  latter  days,  is  truly  beginning  to  make, 
more  fully,  His  "  ways  known  upon  earth,  His  saving 
health  among  all  nations."  The  two  great  antagonistic 
principles  of  humanity — good  and  eril,  in  their  truth  and 
falsity — are  now  standing  forth,  in  a  more  conspicuous 
contrast  than  at  any  former  age  of  the  world's  history. 
The  reason  of  this  is,  because  a  more  spiritual  and  interior 
light,  from  the  Holy  Word,  is  penetrating  the  mists  of 
external  appearances ;  and  right  and  wrong  are  begin- 
ning to  be  more  clearly  seen,  standing  face  to  face,  in  de- 
cided opposition.  And  as  this  spiritual  light  brings  out 
more  and  more  clearly  to  view  the  diversified  features 
and  the  distinct  qualities  of  the  human  heart,  in  its  va- 
rious selfish  and  benevolent  states ;  wars  and  contests, 
mental  and  physical,  of  every  character,  will  rage  hotter 
and  hotter.  For  the  purer  the  light,  the  stronger  will 
error  oppose  it ;  the  higher  the  good,  the  more  violent  the 
evil  will  be  against  it ;  for  the  greater  the  contrast,  the 
more  bitter  the  opposition  ;  because  the  devil,  or  love  of 
evil,  is  ever  tenacious  of  his  dominion,  and  never  gives 
up  till  he  knows  he  is  vanquished. 

But  the  prince  of  darkness  must  yield  his  sceptre  to 
the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  His  reign  on  earth 


THE   NEW   BIRTH.  305 

is  limited.  His  days  of  dominion  are  numbered  :  for  the 
time  is  promised  when  there  shall  be  one  Lord,  one  faith, 
one  baptism  ;  and  when  all  shall  know  the  Lord,  from  the 
least  to  the  greatest. 

But,  to  accomplish  this,  we  must  be  born  again. 
"  That  which  is  born  of  tjie  flesh  is  flesh,  and  that  which 
is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit."  "  Except  a  man  be  born 
of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  God."  To  be  born  of  water  is  the  first  birth.  It 
is  to  have  the  natural  mind  born  of,  and  developed  by, 
natural  truth,  to  which  water  corresponds.  To  be  born 
of  the  Spirit  is  the  second  birth.  It  is  to  have  the  spirit- 
ual mind  born  of,  and  developed  by,  spiritual  truth. 

But  since  the  natural  mind  has  become  depraved  by 
the  fall,  it  has  falsified  and  adulterated  its  natural  truths, 
so  that,  in  the  second  birth,  the  natural  truths  have  to  be 
purified  from  the  falses,  and  made  clean  vessels,  for  the 
reception  of  spiritual  truths.  The  new  birth,  therefore, 
creates  the  internal  mind  and  purifies  the  external  ;  so 
that  the  two  minds  are  in  union  ;  the  external,  bearing 
God's  image,  and  the  internal,  His  likeness  ;  and  both 
possessing  His  spirit  and  life.  To  obtain  this  birth,  is 
the  first  and  highest  object  of  our  existence.  The  means 
are  amply  provided.  But  it  can  come  only  through  the 
free  and  willing  exercise  of  our  own  hearts  and  minds,  in 
obedience  to  the  divine  laws.  "If  ye  would  enter  into 
life,  keep  the  commandments."  "  "Not  every  one  that  saith 
unto  Me,  Lord,  Lord,  sha.ll  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My  Father  who  is 
in  heaven." 


THE  END. 


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